On 30th Anniversary of Big Tech's Legal Shield 

-- CDA Section 230 -- EIE Calls for Repeal

Ahead of the 30^th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-104) which included Communications Decency Act Section 230 signed into law on February 8, 1996, Enough Is Enough^® says Section 230 must be repealed for not only its failure to protect children online, but its unintended consequences, namely the blanket immunity it has given online service providers and platforms for decades.

Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of Enough Is Enough^®, was present during the 1995 drafting of Senator James Exon’s (D-NE), The Exon Bill, designed to regulate obscenity and indecency online, and House negotiating meetings to draft the Communications Decency Act.

“The Congressional intent of Section 230 was to provide a Good Samaritan Defense for Internet Service providers who make a good faith effort to filter pornography from children. Instead, it has protected Big Tech. Since AOL first used Section 230 in a John Doe case (Doe v. AOL), Section 230 has been continually misused and exploited by clever Big Tech attorneys, and misguided federal court rulings which have given online platforms blanket immunity for all content and conduct occurring on their platforms. 

To the horror of those of us who originally supported Section 230, it has become Big Tech’s legal shield – which was not Congress’s original intent in 1996. One of my professional life’s missions is to help amend 230 or completely Sunset 230 as proposed by Senator Graham,” Hughes said.

“I am extremely pleased that there is such wide and deep bipartisan support for repealing Section 230, which protects social media companies from being sued by the people whose lives they destroy. Giant social media platforms are unregulated, immune from lawsuits and are making billions of dollars in advertising revenue off some of the most unsavory content and criminal activity imaginable,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “It is past time to allow those who have been harmed by these behemoths to have their day in court.”

“Big Tech must be treated like Big Tobacco, which targeted young kids while knowing their products were harmful. Big Tech is knowingly doing the same thing. Children have been immeasurably harmed by social media, gaming, and other digital platforms. In fact, kids are dying! Predators and sex traffickers have had easy access to children, addictive algorithms have targeted our children, and tech platforms have been intentionally designed to maximize profits driven by insatiable greed and desire for market share. Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Meta, TikTok, Snap, and Google, and trials are currently underway,” said Hughes.

“For over two decades, Enough Is Enough^® has called for bipartisan Congressional efforts and for the past three Presidential Administrations to amend Section 230 to allow prosecution of those who facilitate illegal commercial sex acts via the internet, in order to thwart the online sexual exploitation and abuse of children and to prevent those engaged in it from profiting from their exploitation. Over 80 organizations and survivor leaders joined Enough Is Enough^® in calling on President Trump to prioritize the prevention of the online exploitation of youth via the 2024 Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge.

“As Section 230 turns 30 years old, we are calling on Congress to repeal this law. It is time for Big Tech’s immunity to end, and for the safety and dignity of children to become a priority, not an afterthought,” said Hughes. 

#protectkidsonline #enoughisenough #sunset230