Washington — The CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter are testifying tomorrow at a hearing about misinformation and extremist content online.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association supports free speech online as well as the right for private companies to decide what material to host online. CCIA has advocated for Section 230 for decades and submitted a written statement for the hearing today.
The following can be attributed to CCIA President Matt Schruers:
“Responsible digital services take trust and safety issues seriously and invest considerable resources in protecting users and mitigating online harms, including those associated with misinformation and disinformation.”
“It’s important that Congress understand that regardless of whether policymakers agree or disagree with a specific content moderation decision by a company, weakening laws to allow more lawsuits from users would unfortunately have a chilling effect on the newer and smaller social media companies, and result in fewer options for posting online content.”
“As we noted in our written statement, ‘Section 230 encourages services to fight misconduct and protects users from online harms by removing disincentives to moderate… Narrowing this protection would have the perverse result of impeding online services’ and websites’ efforts to police bad actors and misconduct, including key consumer protections that users have come to expect, such as spam filtering.’”
For media inquiries, please contact Heather Greenfield hgreenfield@ccianet.org
