Justice Tells Hill It Should Consider Jettisoning Sec. 230

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-28-20

The Trump Justice Department has joined the President in arguing that Twitter and Facebook’s restriction of access to a story in the New York Post about Hunter Biden is evidence that social media need regulating.

That came in a letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and House Energy & Commerce Committee.

The Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing Wednesday (Oct. 28) with the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, and Google about regulating that space. House Republicans on the Energy & Commerce Committee also want to hold a hearing on the issue, as does Senate Judiciary, which has subpoenaed Twitter and Facebook CEOs.

Boyd said the department was buoyed, as it were, by what he called an emerging consensus that it was time to reform Sec. 230, which provides social media sites immunity from civil liability for how they moderate most of the third-party content on their sites, including if they take down or block content they consider objectionable. » Read More