For purposes of National Security, Section 230 must be immediately terminated!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2020
President Trump is threatening to cancel Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996. The section protects internet platforms from liability for speech posted on their platforms that some might objectionable.
The section states: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider” (47 U.S.C. § 230).
Conservatives believe Section 230 helps shield giant tech platforms like Twitter and Facebook from liability for their censorship of conservative content, which is much more frequent than censorship of liberal or left-leaning content, they say.
Some publishers however, believe Section 230 is vital to building free-standing platforms that challenge the supremacy of these big tech companies.
Andrew Torba, CEO of Gab.com, a free-speech alternative to Twitter and Facebook, recently wrote an open letter to President Trump urging him to preserve Section 230.
Torba writes in part:
We have every reason to hate Section 230. But we want you to keep Section 230 exactly the way it is.
Section 230 helps the little guy. We seek to protect free speech on the Internet, and Section 230 is the only thing that stands between us and an avalanche of lawsuits from activist groups and foreign governments who don’t like what our millions of users and readers have to say. Without Section 230, we couldn’t stand up to these oppressive forces that want to eliminate free speech online. With Section 230, we can.
The best thing you could do is to use sites like Gab.com to disseminate content and information your supporters need to read. The Free Speech Internet is growing fast as millions of people make the move over to Gab. If you join the Free Speech Internet it will grow even faster.
We have reserved an account for you at gab.com/realdonaldtrump. Do the right thing – do the effective thing, the thing that will help end Twitter and Facebook’s dominance over the Web for good – and get on Gab, and join us in our mission to make the Internet free again.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Torba, CEO Gab.com
You can read Torba’s letter to President Trump in its entirety here.