White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said on MSNBC this morning that the Biden administration is “reviewing” the possible amendment of Section 230 to allow lawsuits against social media platforms over false claims and misinformation:
"Well, we're reviewing that. And certainly they should be held accountable," White House comms dir @KBeds on MSNBC when asked whether Biden's open to amending Section 230 to make Facebook, Twitter, other social media open to lawsuits for causing harm from spread of false info.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 20, 2021
Maybe the White House scrubbed former President Trump’s Social Media Executive Order a little too soon?
The White House scrubbed the text of Donald Trumps Social Media Executive Order from the https://t.co/siYk1NAOcb website. I discovered the 404 error today when cleaning up broken links on my website. pic.twitter.com/SkUvtkfHkP
— Kristen Ruby (@sparklingruby) July 19, 2021
Keep in mind, Joe Biden, as a candidate, said Section 230 should be revoked:
Biden said before taking office that Section 230 “immediately should be revoked.” And I think @MarkWarner has legislation still out there to change 230. https://t.co/cch0BIoIaH
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) July 20, 2021
It *has* been amended before:
Section 230 has been amended before. FOSTA-SESTA. https://t.co/wrWWjgcmAl
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) July 20, 2021
Over to you, Congress:
A quick reminder to everyone that while Biden can sign legislation, only Congress can change Section 230, and despite all the anti-tech sentiment on the Hill, Ds and Rs are still not that aligned on what the problem with it is, let alone the solutions.
— Brian Fung (@b_fung) July 20, 2021
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But there are still constitutional challenges to get around which must be addressed if that’s even possible:
As a lawyer, @amyklobuchar should damn well know that getting rid of Section 230 won't magically create a cause of action for "vaccine misinformation," which is still constitutionally protected.
As a politician, she chose to go with rank, performative something-must-be-doneism. pic.twitter.com/Nx0nikxuut
— Ari Cohn (@AriCohn) July 19, 2021
And:
What cause of action, and how does it overcome First Amendment protections (both for distributors as well as substantively)? https://t.co/RWFThCLmhz
— Jeff Kosseff (@jkosseff) July 20, 2021
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Update:
'Pure Orwell': WH comms director Kate Bedingfield reveals that the Biden admin has their eyes on conservative outlets' 'irresponsible content' on social media https://t.co/JrU0zNwxy9
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 20, 2021
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