In order to get the commercial Internet up and running in the mid-nineteen-nineties, the nascent industry and Congress struck a deal, memorialized in part as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, among other legislation. Congress classified an Internet business like Alphabet/Google, Meta/Facebook, and Twitter, which had yet to emerge at the time the legislation was enacted, as an “interactive computer service” and shielded the business from liability for content posted to its platform. “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider,” the statute read. In so many words, enabling federal legislation permitted Internet publication without corporate liability.
SECTION 230 CONTEXT & REFORM
SECTION 230 CONTEXT & REFORM
SECTION 230 CONTEXT & REFORM
In order to get the commercial Internet up and running in the mid-nineteen-nineties, the nascent industry and Congress struck a deal, memorialized in part as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, among other legislation. Congress classified an Internet business like Alphabet/Google, Meta/Facebook, and Twitter, which had yet to emerge at the time the legislation was enacted, as an “interactive computer service” and shielded the business from liability for content posted to its platform. “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider,” the statute read. In so many words, enabling federal legislation permitted Internet publication without corporate liability.