Tech’s Liability Shield Under Fire: 26 Words and What’s at Stake

Both parties want to curb protections -- for different reasons

Cutouts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are displayed on the South East lawn of the Capitol building ahead of testimony before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. 

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
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Democrats and Republicans in Congress are taking aim at a controversial law that shields internet platforms including Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. from lawsuits over content posted by users.

The measure -- just 26 words known as Section 230 -- now faces its biggest reckoning since it was included in the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Calls to revise it grew in the months before the November election and intensified after the deadly attack on Congress by then-President Donald Trump’s loyalists.

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Tech’s Liability Shield Under Fire: 26 Words and What’s at Stake