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Amid Big Tech Controversies, Section 230’s Future is Uncertain

The Supreme Court is preparing to hear two cases related to content moderation and platform liability.

Em McPhie

Dec 20, 2022 — 3 min read

Graphic courtesy of Ellagrin Graphic

The past year has seen many controversial decisions from big tech platforms, but 2022 might end up being the last year that such decisions are shielded by the liability protections of Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act.

Many actors are now calling for the statue’s repeal or reformulation. Conservative populists on the right argue that it enables social media giants to silence conservative speech. Progressives on the left believe it allows platforms to shirk responsibility for moderating hate speech and misinformation.

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Of course, Section 230 still has defenders from across the political spectrum. Indeed, none of the many proposed bills for legislative change have garnered much traction. Furthermore, new Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s takeover has demonstrated the pitfalls of a pure “free speech” approach to content moderation: It took just days for his “comedy is legal again” declaration to turn into “tricking people is not OK” — during which time parody tweets reportedly cost advertisers billions.