Trump Administration filed a Petition asking FCC to materialize Section 230

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US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May 2020 to limit the protections social media platforms enjoy under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Trump administration has now taken another step for its implementation. The US Secretary of Commerce through the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) has submitted a petition and asked the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to materialize rules clarifying Section 230. The specific CDA provision indicates that 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. It means ISPs and online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can’t be held legally responsible for what their users or posts say.

The filed petition alleges that the internet has changed considerably since the provision was approved, and the FCC should now determine how Section 230 can both promote a free flow of ideas while holding platforms accountable at the same time. The statement says, “Many early cases, understandably protective of a nascent industry, read section 230’s protections expansively. But, given the maturing internet economy and emergence of dominant social media platforms, the FCC should re-examine section 230, as well as other provisions of the Communications Act of 1934. The FCC should determine how section 230 can best serve its goals of promoting internet diversity and a free flow of ideas, as well as holding dominant platforms accountable for their editorial decisions, in new market conditions and technologies that have emerged since the 1990s”.

The FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr also supported the petition. He said, “It provides an opportunity to bring much-needed clarity to the statutory text”. His fellow commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said, “While social media can be frustrating, turning the FCC into the President’s speech police is not the answer. The FCC needs to reject this effort to deploy the federal government against free expression online. In the United States, we are a democratic, open society in which people can hold their government accountable, even if imperfectly. Whether we can keep it that way depends on the survival of a robust, independent digital space for activism and public discourse”.