🤷 Could Facebook be exempted from Section 230?

The latest bad news for Facebook has to do with everyone’s favorite internet law: Section 230, which protects companies from legal damages for postings made by users. 

• As we all know, Facebook has been under fire even more than normal in recent weeks: As part of all that, whistleblower Frances Haugen explained how Facebook uses algorithms to place user-created content in front of other users.

• Normally under Section 230, internet companies would be protected for any of that content: But in response to Haugen’s comments, per The Verge, Democratic lawmakers have filed a bill that would exempt companies from that protection if they used algorithms that led to harmful content appearing for other users.   

The bill would apply to all social media companies

Twitter and YouTube, notably, also use algorithms to get content in front of people. But this is clearly a response to Facebook. 

The Verdict

The law isn’t quite as strict as it sounds. As The Verge notes, “Companies could seemingly still use large-scale analytics to recommend the most popular general content.”