Co-Signers Sought for Letter Defending Section 230

FightForTheFuture.org (“FFTF”), an organization comprised of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who advocate for technology to serve as “a force for empowerment, free expression, and liberation rather than tyranny, corruption, and structural inequality,” has written a letter to the Biden Administration and the 117th Congress defending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and asking legislators to avoid “uncareful efforts to poke holes” in the safe harbor provided by the legislation.

FFTF is seeking other organizations to sign on to the letter. Those interested in signing should do so by the end of today, Monday January 25. (It may be possible to sign the letter as late as Tuesday, as end of day Monday is described as a soft deadline). The organization plans to send the letter on Wednesday. You can read the full text of the letter and add your company or organization as a signatory here.

In the letter, FFTF notes that the “danger posed by uncareful changes to Section 230 is not theoretical,” citing the negative impact on sex workers that SESTA/FOSTA has had since it was passed in 2018.

“The impacts of this law were immediate and destructive, limiting the accounts of sex workers and making it more difficult to find and help those who were being trafficked online,” the letter states. “This was widely seen as a disaster that made vulnerable communities less safe and led to widespread removal of speech online. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ro Khanna have sponsored legislation to investigate the harm done by SESTA/FOSTA. Lawmakers should pass this bill and examine past mistakes before modifying Section 230 and should hold hearings on the human rights and civil liberties implications of altering the law before legislating further.

“Overly broad changes to Section 230 could disproportionately harm and silence marginalized people, whose voices have been historically ignored by mainstream press outlets,” the letter continues. “For example, social media platforms would be unlikely to host viral videos of police violence that have spurred nationwide uprisings for racial justice if they faced constant litigation from law enforcement for doing so.”

In the letter, FFTF also says the group shares “lawmakers’ concerns with the growing power of Big Tech companies and their unwillingness to address the harm their products are causing.”

“Google and Facebook are just some of the many companies that compromise the privacy and safety of the public by harvesting our data for their own corporate gain, and allowing advertisers, racists and conspiracy theorists to use that data to target us,” the letter states. “These surveillance-based business models are pervasive and an attack on human rights. But claims that Section 230 immunizes tech companies that break the law, or disincentivizes them from removing illegal or policy-violating content, are false. In fact, Amazon has invoked Section 230 to defend itself against a lawsuit over its decision to drop Parler from Amazon Web Services due to unchecked threats of violence on Parler’s platform. Additionally, because Section 230 protects platforms’ decisions to remove objectionable content, the law played a role in enabling the removal of Donald Trump from platforms, who could act without fear of excessive litigation.”

Repealing or amending Section 230 is not the right solution for reining in the influence of “Big Tech,” the letter argues, instead calling for new legislation to address the issue in a more targeted fashion.

“Repealing Section 230 would make it even harder for platforms to engage in good faith moderation of hateful speech and disinformation,” FFTF argues in the letter. “It could lead thousands of smaller companies and alternative platforms to be shut down, therefore crushing competition and making Big Tech even more powerful. This is why Big Tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have said they are open to 230 reforms, because they know it would only reinforce their influence.”

FFTF says it agrees that “Congress should act to address the harms of Big Tech through meaningful legislative action on data privacy, civil rights and others fronts, and enforcement of existing antitrust laws,” but warns that “uncareful efforts to poke holes in Section 230 could result in the exact opposite outcome.”

“Lawmakers must consider the intersectional consequence that this will have on activists, sex workers, Black and brown communities, Muslim communities, LGBTQ+ folks, disabled people and other marginalized communities before they make a change that could profoundly alter the state of digital free speech and human rights,” the letter concludes.

The full letter text and the form for other organizations to use to sign on to it are available here.

As a candidate, Joe Biden went on record saying he believes Section 230 should be repealed and there are several different bills and proposals pending in Congress that seek to amend the statute.

Letter stock photo by Pixabay from Pexels