President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carris a long-time opponent of Big Tech.
Carr wants DELETE with many of the protections afforded to large social media platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The provision provides online platforms with certain protections against legal consequences of third-party content posted on their sites and is one of the define internet legal doctrines. Large platforms like Meta, YouTube, Xand TikTok allow users to post freely on their websites because they know they cannot face any legal repercussions. For example, if a user of X defames someone, the individual could be held liable, but the platform would remain immune from any civil or criminal prosecution.
There are some exceptions to the law for things like copyright violations or promotion of sex work, or if a platform knowingly participates in breaking the law. Platforms would also be held liable if they promised to moderate certain types of content, but did not succeed.
No “industry in which there is a greater gap between power and responsibility”
Carr outlined many of his views on how the FCC should operate in Project 2025the 950-page document written by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and which some say serves as a model political plan for a second Trump campaign.
“The FCC should issue an order that interprets Section 230 in a way that eliminates the broad non-textual immunities that courts have interpreted into the law,” Carr wrote in Project 2025’s section on the FCC.
During the election campaign, Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, saying he had never heard of it. However, while Trump may not have been familiar with Project 2025, appointments like Carr’s show that there is at least some level of ideological alignment between the two.
A lawyer by training, Carr joined the FCC in 2012. Trump appointed him as commissioner in 2017. President Joe Biden then reappointed him to the same position, where he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Throughout his section on Project 2025, Carr lambasts Big Tech, saying that “mastering” it should be the FCC’s top priority. “It is difficult to imagine another industry in which there is a greater gap between power and responsibility,” Carr wrote.
Supporters of Section 230 say it protects the right of individuals to express themselves freely on the Internet. Meanwhile, critics of the provision say it shields big tech companies from any form of liability at a time when their platforms are ubiquitous in American life and riddled with misinformation and misinformation.
The repeal of section 230 would represent a wholesale change on the functioning of major technological platforms. Companies should become much more judicious about the content they allow and promote on their platforms. Craigslist behavior after a law 2018 Creating an exception to Section 230 for platforms that facilitate prostitution provides some guidance. Once the law was passed, Craigslist completely deleted its “people” section even if its goal was not to connect sex workers and their clients.
In the 2025 draft, Carr cited a 2020 draft as supporting evidence. statement by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in which he expressed his belief that Section 230 had exceeded its original purpose. “Courts have interpreted Section 230 broadly to give some of the world’s largest corporations broad immunity found nowhere in the text of the law,” Carr wrote.
Trump and Biden support repeal of Section 230
Eliminating Section 230 is a rare issue in Washington that has bipartisan support. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have both supported removing this provision.
President Joe Biden is a loyal supporter of repealing the rule. During the 2020 election, Biden campaigned on repeal Article 230. Then, while in power, he continued to push for this policy.
“We need big tech companies to take responsibility for the content they put out and the algorithms they use,” Biden wrote in a statement. Wall Street Journal opinion article in January 2023. “That’s why I’ve long said we need to fundamentally reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects tech companies from legal liability for content posted on their sites. »
Trump too favors remove Section 230. During his first term, Trump drafted a decree was intended to significantly restrict the protections of Section 230.
“Twitter is doing nothing about all the lies and propaganda being spread by China or the radical left-wing Democratic Party,” Trump said. tweeted in May 2020. “They targeted Republicans, conservatives and the President of the United States. Section 230 should be repealed by Congress. By then, it will be regulated!
Although members of both the Democratic and Republican parties support repealing Section 230, they often do so for different reasons. Democrats are particularly concerned about Big Tech’s lack of accountability. While Republicans believe that Big Tech platforms unfairly censor conservative points of view. Repealing or reforming Section 230 would also prohibit tech platforms from removing content without notifying the user, which Republicans say is often done to unfairly target them.
Carr took a similar approach in his writings on Project 2025, saying he wanted to limit a platform’s ability to unilaterally remove content. “Congress should do this by ensuring that internet companies no longer have carte blanche to censor protected speech while maintaining their Section 230 protections,” Carr wrote.
Despite support from both sides, progress on this issue has been slow. In 2023, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a vocal critic of Big Techacknowledged that both parties were responsible. “As a Republican, I would love to put the blame on my Democratic colleagues,” he said. said CNN at the time. “But the sad reality is that Republicans are just as responsible, if not more. »
Even if progress is now in sight. There is a house Invoice of the Energy and Commerce Committee which aims to eliminate Section 230 within the next 18 months.