Aspen Institute Commission on Information Disorder, Aspen CO
August 18, 2021
”The Commission on Information Disorder Final Report.” The Aspen Institute, Nov. 2021. CC BY-NC. . Lists Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Co-Founder of Archewell Foundation, as a Commissioner.
Recommendation:
Amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996
Section 230 was intended to provide immunity to platforms that carry the speech of others and to encourage responsible moder ation practices, but has also been used to shield companies from liability for non-speech practices.
1. Paid content
The Commission recommends that paid advertising content should no longer be protected under Section 230. Similar propos als have been advanced by legislators, academics, and advocates. Tech platforms should have the same liability for ad content as television networks or newspapers, which would require them to take appropriate steps to ensure that they meet the established standards for paid advertising in other industries. This amendment to Section 230 is tied to paid promotion to amplify or promote con tent, not all paid content services or subscriptions (e.g., Patreon, Netflix, OnlyFans). It is not intended to impact Section 230 (c)(2),138 which protects platforms from civil liability when they decide to remove objectionable content.
2. Product design
A Section 230 exclusion for product design features would clearly delineate between the speech of platform users and the platforms themselves. This would include explicitly designating the output of recommendation algorithms (group recommendations, friend rec ommendations, “watch next” recommendations) as not being user speech and therefore not covered by Section 230 (to the extent that the recommendations themselves might cause harm). One bill before the House of Representatives, co-sponsored by Members of Congress Malinowski and Eshoo, proposes withdrawing immunity for harmful algorithms.
The Royal Grift - Youtube Channel
