Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is preparing to weaken the legal protection known as Section 230 that shields Big Tech companies from liability, according to a report from the New York Post.
Post columnist Charles Gasparino reported that Carr's plan to erode Section 230 could potentially cost some of the world's most profitable companies billions in market value.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 was written to protect tech companies from being held legally responsible for third-party postings on their platforms, as it was thought that defamation lawsuits over content posted by third parties could crush the fledgling industry.
According to Gasparino, it isn't just companies like Facebook and X that rely on Section 230 to protect them from libel lawsuits and mountains of legal fees; Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple investors could also be impacted by Carr's move to undermine the provision, depending on how far he goes.
New media companies have argued that they are merely conduits of information and should not face the same liability that a traditional publisher would.
However, Gasparino's sources say that Carr believes social media sites operate in a very different landscape than the early days of the internet and regularly make editorial decisions.
Meta's Facebook, for example, censored speech that questioned the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, as did Twitter, prior to Elon Musk's purchase of the platform.
The tech industry's reliance on Section 230 is reportedly substantial, with Amazon shielded from slanderous book reviews and Apple protected from prosecution over an alleged scam app available in its app store.
Conservatives have regularly argued that Section 230 allows Big Tech companies to censor right-leaning content, while promoting content that comes from the left.
By acting more like legacy media outlets, Carr reportedly believes tech platforms should be stripped of their defamation protections.
According to the telecom lawyers Gasparino spoke with, it isn't clear how Carr will go about weakening the provision.
As the top regulator of media, the FCC has the legal authority to interpret Section 230, and Carr could reportedly erode or dispense with the shield entirely by issuing an advisory opinion. The courts would then have to decide whether to use his guidance as they decide Section 230 cases.
An advisory opinion from Carr could also mean that defamation cases against Big Tech companies that would have previously been dismissed could move forward in the court system, potentially leading to settlements due to the high cost of litigation.
Newsmax has reached out to the FCC for comment.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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