{"id":1818152,"date":"2023-01-21T07:20:48","date_gmt":"2023-01-21T12:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1818152"},"modified":"2023-01-21T07:21:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T12:21:25","slug":"big-tech-unites-urges-supreme-court-to-keep-laws-protecting-social-media-companies-in-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/big-tech-unites-urges-supreme-court-to-keep-laws-protecting-social-media-companies-in-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Tech Unites, Urges Supreme Court to Keep Laws Protecting Social Media Companies in Place"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbig-tech-unites-urges-supreme-court-to-keep-laws-protecting-social-media-companies-in-place%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1818152&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>A slew of big tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter, have joined Google in filing legal briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that amending a\u00a0statute pertaining to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-social-media\">social media<\/a> companies\u2019 liability for content posted on their platforms could strip the companies of protections from lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p>Section 230 of The Communications Decency Act covers online platforms like Google or Meta from liability for third-party content. The law was passed by Congress in\u00a01996.<\/p>\n<p>This year, in February, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a high-profile case\u2014<em>Gonzalez v. Google<\/em>\u2014which centers around whether or not online websites should be held liable for content recommended on their sites.<\/p>\n<p>Take, for example:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/nohemi-gonzalez-american-college-student-died-in-paris-terror-attacks_1899681.html\">Nohemi Gonzalez <\/a>American citizen, 23 years old, was shot and killed in Paris by ISIS terrorists in November 2015. The family has retained lawyers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/supreme-courts-section-230-case-could-upend-the-internet-google-claims_4982129.html\">argued<\/a> that\u00a0Google-owned YouTube was partly to blame for the incident and helped the terrorist group to grow by allowing it to share content with its users, thus prompting deaths.<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for Gonzalez also alleged that YouTube\u2019s recommendation algorithms made it easier for ISIS videos to reach potential recruits.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to remove some protections from Section 230.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1901828\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2015\/11\/17\/AP523556188395-1200x773.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-1901828\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AP523556188395-600x386-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"386\"   style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1901828\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/AP523556188395-600x386-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"386\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Nohemi Gonzales, a California State Long Beach student, was killed in Paris at a restaurant on November 15, 2015. This photograph was displayed during a memorial service. (Chris Carlson\/AP Photo)<\/figure>\n<h2>Amending\u00a0Section 230 Could \u2018Upend the Internet\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Google and other tech giants argued that (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/21\/21-1333\/252127\/20230112144706745_Gonzalez%20v.%20Google%20Brief%20for%20Respondent%20-%20FINAL.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) that recommending content is an essential element in how platforms\u00a0provide content to users And that\u00a0modifications of Section 230 could potentially \u201cupend the internet\u201d and \u201cencourage both wide-ranging suppression of speech and the proliferation of more offensive speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft, in its filing<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/21\/21-1333\/252578\/20230119093338723_Microsoft%20Section%20230%20Brief.pdf\">pdf)<\/a> this week, stated that a\u00a0court decision\u00a0amending\u00a0the statute could \u201cstrip these digital publishing decisions of long-standing, critical protection from suit\u2014and it would do so in illogical ways that are inconsistent with how algorithms actually work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A ruling by the justices \u201cwould thereby expose interactive computer services to liability for publishing content to users whenever a plaintiff could craft a theory that sharing the content is somehow harmful. Simply put, the stakes could not be higher,\u201d\u00a0Microsoft wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Meta, meanwhile, argued in its filing\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/21\/21-1333\/252712\/20230119155949995_2023.01.19%20Final%20Google%20v.%20Gonzalez%20-%20Meta%20amicus.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) that the company has \u201clong had strict policies prohibiting terrorists and terrorist groups, as well as posts that praise or support such individuals and groups, on its services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndeed, there are no allegations that the terrorists who carried out those attacks even viewed social media\u2014much less that they viewed ISIS videos on YouTube because Google \u2018recommended\u2019 them. The absence of any such allegations makes this a singularly inappropriate vehicle to draw such a distinction,\u201d Meta wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Mark Zuckerberg-led company then went on to argue that \u201cpetitioners\u2019 purported recommendation\/removal distinction for liability purposes is illusory, as it has no grounding either in the statutory text\u2014which broadly describes the third-party \u2018information\u2019 for which an interactive computer service may not be held liable, and nowhere mentions any exception for \u2018recommendations\u2019\u2014or in how websites actually function.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Twitter owner Elon Musk wrote in the company\u2019s brief (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/21\/21-1333\/252658\/20230119140759469_21-1333%20bsac%20Twitter%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf\">pdf)\u00a0<\/a>that\u00a0while plaintiffs and the United States \u201ctry to distinguish YouTube\u2019s use of a sidebar to display video thumbnails as targeted recommendations, there is no principled or administrable line between such displays and the selection of content for display in a users\u2019 information feed based on, for example, what accounts the user follows and where the user lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4972983\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/01\/09\/Supreme-Court-IMG_1173-2-1200x800.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-4972983\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Supreme-Court-IMG_1173-2-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4972983\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Supreme-Court-IMG_1173-2-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Mar. 10, 2020, Washington, D.C. 10, 2020. (Jan Jekielek\/The Epoch Times).<\/figure>\n<h2>Biden Says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-big-tech\">Big Tech<\/a> Responsibilities must be taken<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cSection 230 ensures that websites like Twitter and YouTube can function notwithstanding the unfathomably large amounts of information they make available and the potential liability that could result from doing so,\u201d Twitter sent its filing.<\/p>\n<p>Yelp,\u00a0Reddit, and\u00a0Craigslist also filed briefs to the court in support of the other tech companies.<\/p>\n<p>Google, in court filing<a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/21\/21-1333\/252127\/20230112144706745_Gonzalez%20v.%20Google%20Brief%20for%20Respondent%20-%20FINAL.pdf\">pdf)<\/a> Last week, they argued that the Supreme Court should \u201cdecline to adopt novel and untested theories that risk transforming today\u2019s internet into a forced choice between overly curated mainstream sites or fringe sites flooded with objectionable content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A string of\u00a0tech company trade groups, including\u00a0the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and the Chamber of Progress, also filed briefs this week defending the importance of Section 230.<\/p>\n<p>Lower courts previously ruled in Google\u2019s favor with regards to\u00a0<em>Gonzalez v. Google,<\/em> but the\u00a0Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Feb. 21 along with a second case, <em>Twitter Inc. v. Taamneh.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>President Joe Biden has long argued Section 230 protections permit platforms to spread hate speech. Most recently, he wrote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/amp\/articles\/unite-against-big-tech-abuses-social-media-privacy-competition-antitrust-children-algorithm-11673439411\">opinion piece<\/a> In The Wall Street Journal, he stated that tech companies must be transparent.\u00a0\u201ctake responsibility for the content they spread and the algorithms they use.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve long said we must fundamentally reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects tech companies from legal responsibility for content posted on their sites,\u201d Biden wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have argued that the\u00a0statute grants immunity to tech giants like Google and Facebook, allowing them to censor conservative voices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A slew of big tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter, have joined Google in filing legal briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that amending a\u00a0statute pertaining to social media companies\u2019 liability for content posted on their platforms could strip the companies of protections from lawsuits. Section 230 of The Communications Decency Act covers &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1818155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,6997,4733,7750,4188,7042,3819,5127,4730,4989,14269,4399],"class_list":["post-1818152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-companies","tag-court","tag-laws","tag-media","tag-protecting","tag-report","tag-social","tag-supreme","tag-tech","tag-unites","tag-urges"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1818155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}