How Section 230 Safeguards Civil Liberties, With Jennifer Huddleston

03/24/21 • 31 min

Jennifer Huddleston, tech policy expert at the American Action Forum, joins Ellysse and Ashley to highlight the benefits of Section 230 for free speech, competition, and innovation and explore the potential implications of new regulations for civil liberties.
Mentioned

Brent Skorup and Jennifer Huddleston, “The Erosion of Publisher Liability in American Law, Section 230, and the Future of Online Curation,” Oklahoma Law Review 72, no. 3 (2020).
Billy Easley, “Revising the Law That Lets Platforms Moderate Content Will Silence Marginalized Voices,” Slate, October 29, 2020.
“H.R.1865 - Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017,” Congress.gov.

Brent Skorup and Jennifer Huddleston, “The Erosion of Publisher Liability in American Law, Section 230, and the Future of Online Curation,” Oklahoma Law Review 72, no. 3 (2020).
Billy Easley, “Revising the Law That Lets Platforms Moderate Content Will Silence Marginalized Voices,” Slate, October 29, 2020.
“H.R.1865 - Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017,” Congress.gov.

Previous Episode

An International Perspective on Section 230, With David Kaye

David Kaye, free speech expert at the University of California, Irvine, joins Ellysse and Ashley to explore the challenges of developing effective and culturally relevant content moderation policies in different countries and how intermediary liability laws like Section 230 impact online speech for billions of users around the world.

Mentioned

David Kaye, Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet(New York: Columbia Global Reports, 2019).
Jack Goldsmith and John Wu, Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
“Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act) and amending Directive 2000/31/EC,” EUR-Lex.

Related

Ashley Johnson and Daniel Castro, “How Other Countries Have Dealt With Intermediary Liability” (ITIF, February 2021).

Next Episode

Section 230 and the Need for Change, With Andrew Bolson

Andrew Bolson, privacy lawyer advocating for Section 230 reform, joins Ellysse and Ashley to evaluate the need for Section 230 reform in order to protect consumers and limit online abuse, suggest what form that should take, and explain the risks of taking a subjective approach to reforming online intermediary liability.

Mentioned

Andrew P. Bolson, “Flawed But Fixable: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act at 20,” Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal 42 (2016).
Andrew P. Bolson, “Moderate the Hate: A Scoring System to Grade the Content Moderation Policies & Safety Procedures of Websites” (2020).

Related

Ashley Johnson and Daniel Castro, “Proposals to Reform Section 230” (ITIF, February 2021).

Ellysse and Ashley Break the Internet - How Section 230 Safeguards Civil Liberties, With Jennifer Huddleston

Transcript

Jennifer Huddleston: In many cases, these proposed changes likely wouldn’t survive First Amendment scrutiny, because again, those platforms themselves have First Amendment rights.

Ellysse Dick: Welcome to Ellysse and Ashley Break the Internet, where we’re exploring the ins and outs of Section 230, the contentious law at the center of the debate about online speech in the U.S. I’m Ellysse Dick, Research Fellow at the Information Technology and Innov