Google has dismissed the Gonzalez family’s Section 230 arguments. It has said the family’s allegations that Google supported terrorism are based on “flamboyant allegations” and “speculative” arguments.
Efforts to reform Section 230 in Congress have stalled. Republicans, spurred on by allegations that internet companies are cutting more conservative jobs, proposed streamlining the law. Democrats said platforms should remove more content if it’s spreading misinformation or hate speech.
Instead, the courts began to explore the limits of the application of the law.
In a 2021 case, a federal appeals court in California ruled that Snapchat’s parent company, Snapchat, could not use Section 230 to avoid a lawsuit involving three people who died in a car crash after using a Snapchat filter had used, which showed the speed of a user.
Last year a federal judge in California said that Apple, Google and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, could not use the legal protection to avoid some claims from consumers who said they were harmed by casino apps. Also a federal judge in Oregon that decided The law didn’t protect Omegle, the chat site that randomly connects users, from a lawsuit that said an 11-year-old girl encountered a predator through her service.
Tech companies say it will be devastating if the Supreme Court undermines Section 230. Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google’s general counsel, said in a December interview that the safeguards “were critical in allowing not just Google but the internet to thrive in its infancy to actually become a vital part of the broader U.S. economy.” become.”
“It’s vital that it stays the way it is,” she said.
A spokesman for Meta pointed this out a blog post where the company’s top attorney said the case “could make it much harder for millions of online businesses like Meta to provide the kind of services people love to use every day.”
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
Activists have raised concerns that changes in the law could result in platforms cracking down on content posted by vulnerable people. In 2018, a new law ended Section 230 protections when platforms knowingly facilitated sex trafficking. Activists say the websites led to it decrease content of adult sex workers Posts about LGBTQ people.
