Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are expected to soon introduce a bill to sunset Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in what would be one of the first bipartisan pushes in years to sunset the long-contested liability shield.
Pressure is ramping up on lawmakers, who failed to pass most related legislation last session despite major lobbying efforts from tech safety groups and families hoping to hold technology companies accountable for social media harms, specifically on young children.
“The damage being done every year just gets worse,” Graham told The Hill. “There’s more support from the public [this session], the parents and grandparents feel helpless.”
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, often dubbed as the 26 words that created the internet, largely protects tech firms from being held legally responsible for third-party or user consent.
The law was passed in 1996, years ahead of the social media boom that transformed the internet over the next three decades.
“To the extent this protection was ever needed, its usefulness has long since passed,” said Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The push comes amid a broader congressional battle over what some members see as the unchecked power of leading technology companies and the inability to prosecute over alleged social media harm or censorship.
Graham introduced similar legislation in 2020, which would have also given Congress two years to either find an “alternative” to Section 230 or pave the way for eliminating the legal protections. His expected bill likely will resemble the 2020 version.
While members of both parties are voicing support for the bill, their priorities for reforming the law often differ.
Democrats’ pursuit of Section 230 reform has largely revolved around holding tech companies responsible for the harms their platforms allegedly cause users, including kids and teenagers.
“I’m under no illusion it will be easy to pass legislation to protect kids online and finally make the tech industry legally accountable for the harms they cause,” Durbin said. “But I hope that for the sake of our nation’s kids, Congress finally acts.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
