Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is a critical protection that helped the Internet become what it is today. Efforts to narrow the law’s protections for Internet platforms, even with the best intentions, are incredibly concerning to the tech and startup communities.
That’s why we joined more than 30 other companies and organizations -- including Copia, Automattic, Cloudflare, GitHub, Medium, Patreon, and Reddit -- to warn lawmakers about the serious unintended consequences of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. As we said in a letter to Sens. Rob Portman and Richard Blumenthal today, narrowing CDA 230’s protections “will prove counterproductive to everyone’s goal of eliminating trafficking” and “will have damaging unintended consequences for many internet companies that are wholly unrelated to the issue.”
We stand ready to have the necessary and important conversation about how to fight sex trafficking, but hindering a foundational law of the Internet is not the answer. Members of the tech and startup communities are already working to help in this fight, and we have decades of experience with policies aimed at targeting undesirable or illegal content on the Internet. We believe that rolling back CDA 230 would actually have the opposite effect, making it more difficult for companies to cooperate with law enforcement to fight trafficking.
We’re eager to work with lawmakers and law enforcement to find a policy solution that actually puts an end to the abhorrent practice of sex trafficking without the devastating consequences to the Internet and the companies that rely on it.
