Sen. Mark Warner Says His Section 230 Bill Is Crafted With Help of Tech Companies

March 23, 2021 – Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, said he and his staff are in “regular contact” with big tech representatives about Section 230 reform.

“Both my staff and I are in regular contact with a host of individuals on the tech side,” Warner said Monday at a Protocol webinar discussing internet intermediary liability provision Section 230.

“We have had a great deal of contact with Facebook; in the most senior levels on the performance team, we have had an ongoing conversation with Google, although sometimes they decided not to show in our hearings.

“My staff is in contact with major platforms entities and will continue to have a dialogue.”

The proposed legislation, which was brought forth by Warner, Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., would maintain immunity from legal consequences for whatever the platforms’ users post, but makes an exemption for content that the companies get paid for.

Critics of the proposal, including Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have said that, if enacted, the change would effectively create a new form of liability on commercial relationships that would force “web hosts, cloud storage providers and even paid email services to purge their networks of any controversial speech.”

After consulting with interest groups, consultants, and experts, Warner declared that it is time to make some changes and get it right. “Some say the bill doesn’t go far enough; some say it goes too far, but I’m sure we got at the right point.”

Screenshot from the webinar

To make it clear what the bill does and what it doesn’t do, Warner shared that this legislation does not restrict anyone’s right to free speech, and he still wants “customers to be able to say about the good or bad of things they got at their local restaurant.”

The changes, Warner said, will address the disparity between big and small tech companies by maintaining protections for the latter but holding the former responsible for things they get paid for.

“In the late 90s, Section 230 was built to protect tech startups,” Warner said, but it has become a “get out of jail free card” for large corporations.