REMINDER of drop #4744 : The Justice Department Unveils Proposed Section 230 Legislation : Wednesday, September 23, 2020 Department of Justice Wednesday, September 23, 2020 The Justice Department Unveils Proposed Section 230 Legislation Excerpts: The legislation also executes President Trump’s directive from the Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship.   “For too long Section 230 has provided a shield for online platforms to operate with impunity,” said Attorney General William P. Barr.  “Ensuring that the internet is a safe, but also vibrant, open and competitive environment is vitally important to America.  We therefore urge Congress to make these necessary reforms to Section 230 and begin to hold online platforms accountable both when they unlawfully censor speech and when they knowingly facilitate criminal activity online.”   “The Department’s proposal is an important step in reforming Section 230 to further its original goal: providing liability protection to encourage good behavior online,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen.  “The proposal makes clear that, when interactive computer services willfully distribute illegal material or moderate content in bad faith, Section 230 should not shield them from the consequences of their actions.”   Promoting Transparency and Open Discourse First, the draft legislation has a series of reforms to promote transparency and open discourse and ensure that platforms are fairer to the public when removing lawful speech from their services. The current interpretations of Section 230 have enabled online platforms to hide behind the immunity to censor lawful speech in bad faith and is inconsistent with their own terms of service.  To remedy this, the department’s legislative proposal revises and clarifies the existing language of Section 230 and replaces vague terms that may be used to shield arbitrary content moderation decisions with more concrete language that gives greater guidance to platforms, users, and courts.  The legislative proposal also adds language to the definition of “information content provider” to clarify when platforms should be responsible for speech that they affirmatively and substantively contribute to or modify.   Addressing Illicit Activity Online The second category of amendments is aimed at incentivizing platforms to address the growing amount of illicit content online, while preserving the core of Section 230’s immunity for defamation claims.  Section 230 immunity is meant to incentivize and protect online Good Samaritans.  Platforms that purposely solicit and facilitate harmful criminal activity — in effect, online Bad Samaritans — should not receive the benefit of this immunity.  Nor should a platform receive blanket immunity for continuing to host known criminal content on its services, despite repeated pleas from victims to take action.    DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S REVIEW OF SECTION 230 OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT OF 1996 https://www.justice.gov/ag/department-justice-s-review-section-230-communications-decency-act-1996?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-unveils-proposed-section-230-legislation https://qanon.pub/?#4744