Sunset Section 230 Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, this bipartisan bill is a crucial first step to bring Members of Congress, industry, civil society, and families to the table to discuss the future of the internet. It does not aim to end the conversation.
Social media, and the internet broadly, continue to evolve. We need to keep up. Tech platforms must be appropriately incentivized to address the harmful content that has been allowed to proliferate online and influence our children, our communities, and our country as a whole.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 was passed into law during the early days of the internet, with the intent of incentivizing an environment where platforms could innovate. Section 230 also immunized platforms that engaged in good-faith moderation of content they deem to violate their platform's terms and conditions or community standards.
While section 230 played a central role in the growth of the internet as we know it today, the legislation could not have anticipated the growth and popularity of social media platforms we are now grappling with. For nearly 30 years, social media platforms have enjoyed blanket immunity for the content they host. They have failed to adequately police harmful content on their sites, despite their terms and conditions mandating them to do so.
While most of the conversation surrounding section 230 focuses on Big Tech, it is important to take into consideration small community-based platforms that are also protected by section 230. These platforms do not use algorithmic recommendations, do not contain live feeds, like buttons, and are not in the business of keeping people online. Rather, they serve as a platform for community engagement. I believe these platforms can serve as a model for content moderation, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to find ways to continue to provide protection for platforms that promote respectful exchange among users.
I have long advocated for free speech and believe that all communities should have the right to express themselves online. But tech platforms have made billions while ignoring violent and exploitative content and disinformation that lives on their platforms. It is time for Congress to act.
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