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Conservative groups push Congress not to meddle with internet law

Conservative groups push Congress not to meddle with internet law

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Fourteen conservative and free market groups want Congress to refuse any changes to Section 230

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Over a dozen right-leaning groups wrote to Congress on Wednesday asking leaders to reject any changes to the law that provides social media platforms with their largest legal shield, even as members on both sides of the aisle are now calling for major changes to the law.

Over the past few months, members of Congress and the White House have ramped up attacks on social media platforms. Democrats have often targeted them for poor data privacy practices, and Republicans have focused more on content moderation methods that they believe favor liberal-leaning views. Republicans have floated around changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which relieves companies from liability for content posted on their platforms, as the solution to all of their content moderation woes, and legislation making major changes to the law has already been introduced

“Countless conservative voices benefit from the liability protections guaranteed by Section 230.”

Other right-leaning groups like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity see any changes to the law as a mistake. According to these groups, changes to Section 230 would hurt Republicans and Democrats equally.

“Countless conservative voices benefit from the liability protections guaranteed by Section 230, and oppose any attempts to end this vital provision,” David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said. “The internet flourishes when social media platforms allow for discourse and debate without fear of a tidal wave of liability. Ending Section 230 would shutter this marketplace of ideas at tremendous cost.”

The letter comes a day before the White House is set to hold a social media summit, hosting right-wing figures and organizations like PragerU and memesters like Carpe Donktum, to discuss how social media platforms are allegedly censoring their speech online. There has been no significant evidence backing up these claims, but Republicans like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) have helped force the issue into the mainstream political discourse. 

“Online platforms power the American economy and conservative speech online, and it’s clear that many conservative and free market groups support maintaining Section 230,” vice president and general counsel Carl Szabo said. “It’s bad policy and bad politics for Republicans to attack Section 230.”