Section 230 – Donald Trump Demands Repeal of Section 230
DONALD TRUMP has been an abrupt advocate of repealing section 230 of the Communications Decency Act; you might be thinking, what is that section 230?
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The chief executives of significant internet contributors like Facebook, Twitter, and Google have agreed to willingly testify at a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on October 28. They will testify about a key law that protects internet companies - Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has long campaigned to reform the law in this area, which he has argued allegedly stifles conservative voices on the internet. Mr. President's calls for reform of section 230 have been intensifying in the run-up to November 3, as the U.S. presidential election will take place on that date.
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Last week after the Justice Department unveiled a legislative proposal to reform the law, Mr. Trump met with nine Republican state attorneys general to discuss Section 230.
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On Tuesday, October 6, 2020, Mr. Trum tweeted most forcefully: "REPEAL SECTION 230!!!"
That tweet of Mr. Trump was a reaction to Twitter's decision to label one of the president's earlier tweets as "misleading and potentially harmful".
What is Section 230?
Section 230 is a piece of Internet legislation in the United States, passed into law as part of the Communications Decency Act (C.D.A.) of 1996 (a common name for Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996), formally codified as Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 at 47 U.S.C. § 230. [a] Section 230 generally provides immunity for website publishers from third-party content.
At its core, Section 230(c)(1) provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an "interactive computer service" who publish information provided by third-party users:
"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."
Section 230 allows protections to social media platforms against the liability for any content posted by third parties on these social media platforms. It means that the internet companies are protected from legal action linked to content posted by other users on their different social media platforms.
But the law has imposed some restrictions on these internet companies, which states that the owner of these websites or companies is allowed to act in "good faith" to remove the content they deem inappropriate or offensive.
Why does Donald Trump want to reform Section 230?
Some of Mr. Trump's posts on social media platforms such as Twitter have been affected by the laws stated in Section 230.
On October 6, Facebook removed a post from Mr. Trump's official account, which was deemed to include misleading and inaccurate information, and Twitter also flagged the post for violating its rules.
That post of Mr. Trump Stated:
"Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu.
"Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!"
However, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.) estimates between 12,000 and 61,000 deaths have been caused by influenza annually since 2010.
The U.S. has recorded more than 200,000 deaths due to COVID-19 this year - the highest number of any nation in the world.
This is not the first time Twitter has intervened with one of Mr. Trump's posts on the platform.
Earlier this year, Twitter deemed Mr. Trump had made several unsubstantiated claims that mail-in voting causes voter fraud.
Mr. Trump tweeted in August:
"So now the Democrats are using mail drop boxes, which are a voter-security disaster.
"Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times.
"Also, who controls them? Are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitised - a big fraud."
However, the Twitter's 'Civic integrity policy' outlines:
"You may not use Twitter's services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes.
"This includes posting or sharing content that may suppress participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process.
"In addition, we may label and reduce the visibility of Tweets containing false or misleading information about civic processes in order to provide additional context."
