Thread by @GretchenSPeters

I took the time to read @ma_franks and @daniellecitron's excellent paper on #CDA230 and I'm glad I did. I hope those committees working on reform read it too. I'll summarize some key points here 🧵
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papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Worth reminding y'all that #CDA230's original purpose was "to help clean up the Internet, not to facilitate people doing bad things on the Internet."
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The law’s overbroad interpretation by courts "resulted in platforms having scant legal incentive to combat online abuse."
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"Allowing attention-grabbing abuse to remain online often accords with platforms’ rational self-interest" as they profit from engagement. Also, firms have mainly "expended resources to stem abuse when it has threatened their bottom line."
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Failing to address online abuse inflicts economic, physical, and psychological harms on victims & ALSO "jeopardizes their right to free speech." Online abuse often silences victims as folks like @MonicaLewinsky @cagoldberglaw have spoken about.
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#CDA230 is often conflated with #1stammendment but this wrongly presumes all online activity is speech:

"If the conduct would not be speech protected by the First Amendment if it occurs offline, it should not be transformed into speech merely because it occurs online."
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They make a strong argument that politicians who have “fallen under the spell of viewpoint neutrality” should read. I'm talking to you @tedcruz @Jim_Jordan

Bids to reform CDA230 that wrongly equate private firms as government “undermine, not promote, First Amendment values.”
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They propose a one-word edit of #CDA230 to "make explicitly clear that the statute’s protections only apply to speech."

It's an elegant solution, so simple that even Congress should be able to handle it. I bet even @RonWyden could stomach it. 😂
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(c)(1) would thus read: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any SPEECH provided by another information content provider.

They also propose ways to exclude bad actors from the legal shield.
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Folks who should read it include: @SpeakerPelosi @janschakowsky @tedcruz @Sen_JoeManchin @RepKinzinger @RepBuddyCarter @FrankPallone @repgregwalden @USRepMikeDoyle @LindseyGrahamSC @SenBlumenthal @boblatta @RonWyden @senrobportman
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The Alliance to Counter Crime Online @CounteringCrime is a bipartisan team of researchers, academics and citizen investigators fighting to push dangerous illegal activity off the #Internet. We know protecting free speech and public safety don't have to be mutually exclusive.
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