Trump’s pick for FCC chairman wants to eliminate laws protecting social media companies from legal consequences for posts on their platforms

Carr wants do it with many protections in place for major social media platforms according to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This provision provides online platforms with some protection from legal consequences for third party content posted on their sites and is one of the provisions Identify the legal doctrines of the internet. Big platforms like Meta, YouTube, Xand TikTok allows users to post freely on their site because they know they cannot face any legal consequences. For example, if a user on X defames someone, that individual could be held responsible but the platform would remain immune from any civil or criminal lawsuits.

There are some exceptions to the law for things like copyright infringement or promotion of prostitution, or if a platform knowingly engages in violating the law. Platforms will also face liability if they make promises reasonable certain types of content but then fail.

In no ‘industry is there a greater gap between power and accountability’

Carr outlined many of his views on how the FCC should operate Project 2025950-page document written by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation that some believe played a role in policy plan for Trump’s second presidential campaign.

“The FCC should issue an order interpreting Section 230 in a way that eliminates the broad, unwritten exemptions that courts have built into the statute,” Carr wrote in Project 2025’s piece on the FCC.

During the election campaign, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, claiming he had never heard of it. Yet even if Trump may not be familiar with Project 2025, appointments like Carr’s suggest there is at least some degree of ideological alignment between the two projects.

A lawyer by training, Carr joined the FCC in 2012. Trump appointed him commissioner in 2017. President Joe Biden later reappointed him to the same role, where he was appointed by the Senate. The Institute unanimously confirmed. Throughout his Project 2025 segment, Carr criticized Big Tech, claiming that “containment” of it should be the FCC’s top priority. “It is difficult to imagine another industry with a greater gap between power and accountability,” Carr wrote.

Supporters of Section 230 say it protect individuals’ right to express themselves freely on the internet. Meanwhile, critics of the provision say it shields Big Tech companies from all forms of liability at a time when their platforms are pervasive in American life and filled with misinformation and deviation.

Repealing Section 230 would represent one wholesale change about how major technology platforms operate. Companies will have to be much more cautious in allowing and promoting content on their platforms. Craigslist’s behavior after one Law 2018 creating an exception to Section 230 for platforms that facilitate sex work gives some indication. Once the law is passed, Craigslist has completely eliminated the “personal” part of it even though its purpose is not to connect sex workers with customers.

In Project 2025, Carr cites as supporting evidence 2020. declare from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in which he expressed his belief that Section 230 had strayed too far from its original intent. “Courts have interpreted Section 230 broadly to give some of the world’s largest companies sweeping immunity that is not contained in the text of the statute,” Carr wrote.

Trump and Biden support repealing Section 230

Eliminating Section 230 is a rare issue in Washington with bipartisan support. Both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump support removing this provision.

President Joe Biden is loyal deregulation advocate. During the 2020 election, Biden campaigned abolished Paragraph 230. Then, while in office, he continued to promote the policy.

“We need Big Tech companies to be held accountable for the content they spread and the algorithms they use,” Biden wrote in a Twitter post. Wall Street Journal article in January 2023. “That’s why I’ve long said we must fundamentally reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, to protect technology companies from liability for content posted on their website.”

Trump also favor repeal Section 230. During his first term in office, Trump draft an executive order to significantly narrow Section 230 protections.

“Twitter does nothing about all the lies and propaganda put out by China or the radical left Democratic Party,” Trump said. tweeted in May 2020. “They targeted Republicans, Conservatives, and the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be managed!”

Although members of both the Democratic and Republican parties support repealing Section 230, they often do so for different reasons. Democrats are especially concerned about Big Tech’s lack of accountability. While Republicans believe Big Tech platforms unfairly censor conservative viewpoints. Repealing or reforming Section 230 would also prohibit tech platforms from removing content without notifying users, which Republicans say is often done to unfairly target them.

Carr took a similar approach in his Project 2025 writings, saying he wanted to limit a platform’s ability to unilaterally remove content. “Congress should do so by ensuring that Internet companies no longer have full authority to censor protected speech while maintaining their Section 230 protections,” Carr wrote.

Despite support from both sides, progress in resolving this issue remains very slow. 2023 Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a vocal critic of Big Techacknowledge that both parties are responsible. “As a Republican, I want to blame that on my Democratic colleagues,” he said. speak CNN at that time. “But the sad fact of the matter is that Republicans are equally, if not more, to blame.”

Although now a breakthrough is on the horizon. There is a house bill from the Energy and Commerce Committee aims to eliminate Section 230 in the next 18 months.