No Change Seen in CDA if GOP Takes Congress
The Communications Decency Act is unlikely to be rewritten so ISPs are held liable for posting ads selling minors for sex should Republicans take control of the House or Senate, an increasing possibility to many pollsters, some experts said. The GOP’s business-friendly attitude works against CDA rewrite and ISPs will unify against any attempt to amend the CDA, they said.
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The issue flared in Congress this summer after news stories exposed how pimps and johns allegedly use Craigslist for soliciting sex with minors (WID Aug 12 p4). The subsequent public outcry resulted in a congressional hearing and Craigslist’s voluntary removal of its Adult Services category. The issue is unlikely to disappear as the ads migrated to other websites such as the Village Voice-owned Backpage. Advertisers on the company’s site adjusted to capitalize on the new business with text such as “Craigslist Adult Services Closed - (domain name) has 250,000 guys looking for you now!” Backpage rejected requests to follow Craigslist and recently retained as an adviser Hemanshu Nigam, a former federal prosecutor of child predators.
Amending the CDA to fight child trafficking isn’t a partisan issue but reflects public frustration with criminal activity flaunted on the Internet, said Nigam. “Anyone who cares about kids will focus on this.” Donna Rice Hughes, president of the Internet safety group Enough Is Enough, agreed. “I don’t think it would make a difference if it was a Republican or Democratic congress,” she said. “You have your libertarians, your First Amendment absolutists on either side of the aisle.”
Marshalling the political will to amend the CDA would take a watershed change on Internet philosophy, or a dramatic event convincing Congress it must act, said Eric Goldman, an associate professor and director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law. “Congress reacts when there is a particular victim that becomes a flashpoint.” If anything, the GOP is less likely to amend the CDA, he said, noting that liberal Democrats such as Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., are the politicians raising the issue. It would be difficult for any one issue to dislodge the GOP from its stereotypical pro-business approach, he said.
The CDA won’t change even if someone mounted a challenge in the next congressional session because the political interests pushing it lack unity, said Goldman. Complaints are usually raised by individuals instead of a group forming a consensus and doing something about it, he said. Any attempt to amend the CDA would fail because ISPs will band together against it, Nigam said. “If you try to hold someone liable if you are not policing every nook and cranny of a site, no site would exist.”