The following statement is attributed to Evan Engstrom, Executive Director of Engine, regarding today’s Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship:
The White House’s executive order on “preventing online censorship” is a dangerous move that will encourage bad faith lawsuits, and dismantle the fundamental and commonsense legal framework that startups depend on to compete in today’s Internet ecosystem and keep their platforms free of objectionable content.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides online platforms of all sizes with liability protections when they host and moderate content created and shared by users, which helps shield early-stage companies from abusive litigation over users’ content. The executive order attempts to recast Section 230’s applicability to Internet platforms by pushing federal agencies to clarify what qualifies as “good faith” moderation under the law, and to investigate alleged political bias in content moderation practices.
In addition to raising significant logistical and legal concerns, the executive order dramatically misunderstands Section 230 and directly undermines its original intent to encourage Internet platforms to responsibly moderate user content. Contrary to the apparent motive fueling the executive order, dismantling Section 230 would not only increase the legal risk of hosting any kind of political speech—likely leading to some platforms banning all such content from their sites—it would actually make platforms like Twitter and Facebook more powerful by imposing untenable legal costs that will fall disproportionately on smaller competitors.
On the heels of President Donald Trump’s public feud with Twitter earlier this week, the politically motivated executive order ignores the realities of online content moderation and Section 230 and First Amendment jurisprudence and would only serve to stifle free speech, innovation, and competition.
Policymakers should stop wasting time on illogical and likely invalid attempts to undermine a foundational law that enables free speech and competition online—especially at a time when most Americans are relying on the Internet to conduct their lives—and instead focus on the more pressing matter of ensuring job-creating startups can survive the pandemic.
