LOS ANGELES—Following a Donald Trump executive order in May calling for rollbacks to Section 230, the Federal Communications Commission is now calling for input from the public on whether it should review that law. Last week, the Trump administration formally requested that the Federal Communications Commission potentially revise the 24-year-old law.
On Monday, over objections from critics including its own members, the FCC opened the Section 230 review up for public comment, using the same system that during the 2017 debate over repeal of net neutrality was flooded with millions of fake comments from telecom industry lobbyists, bots, and even Russians.
Section 230 is a 1996 law that protects online platforms from legal liability over content posted by their users. It has been under legislative assault from both sides of the political aisle at least since the 2018 passage of the FOSTA/SESTA anti-sex trafficking law, amid complaints that its protections for online platforms go too far. Those complaints have ranged from accusations that Section 230 allows platforms to turn a blind eye to online sex trafficking, to the claim that social media sites censor speech for political reasons.
But critics of Trump’s order, including sitting FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, say that a presidential order cannot legally result in changes to an existing law. Only Congress can do that, they say.
“The broader debate about Section 230 long predates President Trump’s conflict with Twitter in particular, and there are so many smart people who believe the law here should be updated,” Starks said in a statement. “But ultimately that debate belongs to Congress. That the president may find it more expedient to influence a five-member commission than a 538-member Congress is not a sufficient reason, much less a good one, to circumvent the constitutional function of our democratically elected representatives.”
Starks called on the FCC to simply dismiss the executive order, letting Congress make any legal modifications to Section 230.
But FCC Chair Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed to the post by Trump, appeared to lash back at Starks in his own statement announcing the public comment period on Monday.
“I strongly disagree with those who demand that we ignore the law and deny the public and all stakeholders the opportunity to weigh in on this important issue,” he wrote. “We should welcome vigorous debate—not foreclose it.”
The public comment period remains open for 45 days, but public opinion is not legally required to play any part in the FCC’s decision-making process. To leave a comment about the proposed rollback of Section 230, visit this FCC link.
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