Three of the biggest companies in tech have once again sent their CEOs to appear before congress to discuss the future of the internet this past week.
Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey all responded to more questions in a video call with the Senate Commerce Committee this past week and addressed Section 230, a very important law passed in 1996 that will have a profound effect on the future of content online.
Basically, Section 230 became a law in 1996 and dictates the accountability an online organization has on data.
The law basically states that a company is not responsible for the content that its users may share that is unlawful, though it does give these overseers the ability to moderate this content.
It applies to much more than these three tech giants, but also to most websites in general.
The fact that the law has not really changed since the infancy of the Internet is something that the hearing attempted to address.
Zuckerberg was more open to helping to change the laws, although Dorsey and Pinchai were much more tight-lipped about possible changing, warning lawmakers that they would need to be very careful and not make any decisions to change the law without a bit of thought.
This week’s hearing was certainly met with a great level of political infighting from both major parties.
Republicans continued to hammer home the belief that big tech was “censoring” major groups, individuals, and free thinkers, while Democrats accused Republicans of using this opportunity to try to curtail big tech right before a consequential Presidential election.
Many of the more Conservative politicians strongly advocate the law needs to be changed so that big tech does not yield too much control, while others think the law is simply outdated.
No concrete actions have been taken following the hearing, and it will largely come down to what might happen on November 3rd to really know the future of Section 230.
Key Democrats like Presidential nominee Joe Biden has openly stated Section 230 should be abolished, while the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has also openly been in favor of changing the nearly 25-year-old law.
Donald J. Trump, however, has not weighed in on the issue but is likely to echo the sentiments of the other Republican Congressmen to call out the moderation some of these companies have taken to have some of their more controversial content removed.
One way or the other, the CEOs of these three major companies would prefer not to have to go before Congress regularly and there will likely be much more discussion in the near future on the possible changing of the current law.
