Zuckerberg Demands Amendment to 'Communications Decency Act Section 230' Blocked by Trump

Source: WSJ

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has requested the U.S. Congress to amend 'Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act,' which exempts social media companies from legal liability for content posted by users.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 24th (local time), Zuckerberg proposed this in a written response submitted ahead of his appearance at the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, suggesting that platform companies should establish systems to independently identify and remove illegal content as an alternative.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act contains a liability exemption clause that protects platform companies from responsibility for content such as posts or comments uploaded by social media users. Last year, then-President Donald Trump pushed for the repeal of this provision, and currently, amendments are being discussed in Congress.

CEO Zuckerberg argued that it is unrealistic to filter every single one of the billions of posts uploaded daily and that evaluation should vary depending on the scale of the platform.

However, since President Joe Biden has opposed the amendment by urging Congress to fully repeal the law during the election period, realization of the amendment is expected to be difficult.

According to CNBC, Democratic Representative Anna Eshoo, whose district includes Silicon Valley, criticized Zuckerberg's proposal as a "skillful distraction."

Representative Anna Eshoo has submitted an amendment to revoke immunity privileges from social media platforms that spread or recommend posts related to terrorism or civil rights violations.

This request came as CEOs of big tech companies prepare to testify before Congress.

At the House hearing held on the same day under the theme of 'Extremism, Misinformation, and the Role of Social Media,' Zuckerberg will attend virtually along with Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.