Durbin, Judiciary Members Back Eliminating Section 230
Congress should revoke Section 230 if it continues to fail in passing legislation to hold Big Tech accountable for online harms, including child exploitation and illegal drug sales, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and several other members Thursday.
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Ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., expressed his support for yet another bill aimed at kids’ online safety, which passed the committee unanimously Thursday. But if Durbin's desired legislative package on kids’ safety (see 2305240050) dies without final passage, Congress should eliminate Communications Decency Act Section 230 with a two-year sunset, Graham said. He previously announced plans to introduce sunset legislation with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. (see 2305110048).
If these bills “die, we need to change the game,” said Graham. Durbin said he doesn’t “oppose that effort. I think that should be the next step, should we not succeed on the floor. But shame on us if we don’t try.”
If Congress is “so afraid to act,” the only way to do anything about the harm enabled by Big Tech is to “get rid of Section 230, which probably never should have been there in the first place and this whole ecosystem wouldn’t be set up in the way it is,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Graham presents an “intriguing, challenging and, I suspect, action-forcing” proposal. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he joins Graham in “feeling that we need to put a time limit on Section 230, abolish it in two years. I would abolish it now.” This discussion shows there’s a critical mass to say to Big Tech that companies have “exhausted this shield” and they “don’t deserve it,” said Blumenthal.
The committee passed by voice vote the Report Act (S-474). Introduced by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., the Report Act would require platforms and app operators to report “violations of federal crimes involving child sex trafficking and online enticement or coercion of children.” The bill increases the fine up to $850,000 for websites that “knowingly and willfully fail to report child sexual abuse material and online child sexual exploitation.” It increases the time limit for how long platforms are required to “preserve evidence for reports that they submit to the CyberTipline.” The bill should be included in the kids’ online safety legislative package, said Durbin.
Increasing fines for platforms that fail to report is “vitally important,” said Blackburn: There has to be “pain inflicted” on platforms that “turn a blind eye.” Ossoff called it a “timely” and “essential” bill. Durbin said it’s “unlikely” the press covered Thursday’s markup, “but I wish they would.”
Durbin held over the Cooper Davis Act (S-1080), a bipartisan bill that would create a reporting structure for social media companies to provide information about illicit drug transactions to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which recently briefed the committee on the issue. Holding the bill over will allow for further bipartisan negotiations, said Durbin.