JONES DAY PRESENTS®: Section 230: A Springboard to a First Amendment Discussion
New Developments in the World of Section 230
Trump vs. Twitter: The Feud Over Section 230 and Online Censorship
On July 28, 2025, a New York state appellate court ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 bars claims against online platforms based on user-generated content made accessible through the platforms'...more
Social media safety is very much in the news these days, with policymakers unleashing a torrent of legislation to protect children online, such as age verification measures, parental consent mandates, data privacy...more
On February 20, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated a public inquiry regarding whether any technology platforms, including social media, communications, and other internet service providers, have violated the...more
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a case that sought to hold Facebook parent company Meta liable for the 2015 mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal...more
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff announced a Request for Information (RFI) on February 20 seeking public comments on “how consumers may have been harmed by technology platforms that limited their ability to share ideas or...more
In Ryan v. X Corp., a Northern District of California court held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunized X (formerly Twitter) against claims arising from suspension of a user’s account, notwithstanding...more
As proliferation of harmful content online has increasingly become easier and more accessible through social media, review websites and other online public forums, businesses and politicians have pushed to reform and limit...more
In a recent landmark decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that TikTok could be held liable in a wrongful death suit stemming from the “Blackout Challenge” — a disturbing trend promoted through the...more
Last month, the Ninth Circuit reeled back protections for digital media platforms on which scam ads are found. Calise v. Meta Platforms, Inc., 103 F.4th 732 (9th Cir. 2024) Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act...more
A coalition of 20 Republican and three Democratic AGs submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Doe v. Snap, Inc., No. 23-961, urging the Court to grant petitioner’s writ of certiorari and reverse the...more
In the prior two installments of our six-part series examining Section 230, the section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) that immunizes online service providers from liability stemming from the publication and...more
Recent Senate hearings on social media safety have spotlighted the urgent need to protect children online, a concern that’s increasingly challenging the legal frameworks governing online platforms. Against this backdrop, the...more
The Internet makes it easier than ever to connect with people around the world, share ideas and information, and have their voices heard regardless of whether they are a single individual with limited resources or a massive...more
On July 14, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an administrative stay of an order that would prohibit certain federal officials and agencies from communicating with social media companies on content...more
Here at Socially Aware we talk a lot about Section 230, the section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) that immunizes social media platforms and other online service providers from liability stemming from content...more
Should tech companies be liable for the content their users post? They haven’t been, and after two Supreme Court decisions on May 18, they’ll continue not to be liable—a major win for tech companies....more
The U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases recently that left untouched Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides online platforms immunity from claims based on content that their users create and share on...more
On May 18, 2023, in Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh et al., the United States Supreme Court ruled against an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (“ISIS”) attack victim’s family who sought to hold Twitter, and other social media...more
While some people thrive in the land of TikTok dances, others struggle to limit their thoughts to 140 characters leading Twitter to increase their character limit to 280 in 2017. In fact, as of February 2019 Internet users...more
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. §230(c)(1) (hereafter “§230”), protects internet services, like Facebook, Twitter, and the like, from liability based on words used by third parties who use their...more
Key Points - This September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 587 into law, establishing new transparency requirements for social media companies. The new requirements include publicly posting and submitting to the...more
The June 10, 2020 and July 22, 2019 posts on Trending Law Blogs discussed, among other things, how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. §230 (c)(1) (hereafter “§230”), has come under attack by politicians...more
Three new bills, one introduced in the California Assembly and two in the US Senate, are taking aim at online social media platforms. If adopted, both bills would significantly alter existing duties to prevent or mitigate...more
A pair of recent rulings—one in the U.S. and another in Australia—hint at a future in which internet companies may not enjoy the immunity they currently hold for content created by others that appears on their sites....more
Online platforms that allow users to post content face a constant choice: to remove or to not remove, to police or not to police. Shakespearean allusions aside, platforms generally want user engagement — to reach as many...more