No change on the internet: big techs win historic US trial

The US Supreme Court handed a major victory to Silicon Valley tech giants on Thursday, May 18, shielding online platforms from two lawsuits that legal experts warned could shake up the internet.

The two decisions preserve the ability of social media companies to avoid prosecutions stemming from terrorism-related content and represent a setback for tech industry critics who say the platforms are not being held accountable.

Thus, the judges dismissed lawsuits seeking to hold tech giants, also known as big techs, such as Google and Twitter, responsible for content promoting terrorism on their platforms. The court did not issue a sweeping ruling on the immunity provision, which has been increasingly criticized by both Republicans and Democrats.

These cases mark the first time the Supreme Court has dealt with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The law, enacted in 1996, largely protects technology companies from being sued for hosting most of the content of third parties on their sites and for making decisions to remove infringing materials.

The two decisions represent a major victory for the tech industry, which has argued that the Section 230 restriction could be disastrous for the internet if platforms could be sued over content moderation decisions.

However, the resolution leaves open the possibility of future confrontations, potentially in Congress, over the extent of the legal protections enjoyed by Internet companies. The tech industry has cheered the decisions.

This is a big win for free speech on the Internet. Even with the best moderation systems out there, a service like Twitter alone can’t verify every user-generated content with 100% accuracy. Imposing liability on such services for the unintentional release of harmful content would discourage their hosting of any user-generated content.

Chris Marchese, director of the litigation center at NetChoice, a technology trade group that represents Twitter and Google, in a statement

US Supreme Court decisions

The post No Changes on the Internet: Big Tech Wins Historic Judgment in US appeared first on Olhar Digital.

Source: Olhar Digital