Florida Senator Ashley Moody supports a bipartisan bill to sunset Section 230 immunity and protect children online.
Florida Senator Ashley Moody joined forces with a mix of Republicans and Democrats including Senators Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn, Amy Klobuchar, Dick Durbin, Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Peter Welch to introduce the Sunset Section 230 Act.
“As a former prosecutor and the mother of a school aged child, I know firsthand the dangers our children face online,” Republican Florida Senator Ashley Moody said. “We are the first generation of parents having to deal with predators getting to our children under our own roofs through their devices. The old rules — stranger danger, don’t get in the van — aren’t enough to protect them anymore. That is why I am throwing my full support behind the Sunset Section 230 Act, and I urge my colleagues to get off the sidelines and finally do something to protect our kids.”
Section 230 was created in 1996, as a part of the Communications Decency Act, to allow then-fledgling social media companies to grow without fear of lawsuits. Senators say those days have long since passed, as these companies are now some of the most powerful in the history of the world.
In the digital era, thousands of Americans, many of whom are children, have been targeted by online perpetrators who engage in harassment, bullying, the dissemination of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and sextortion, a type of online blackmail using nude or sexually explicit images. In certain cases, victims of these crimes are driven to suicide within mere minutes or hours after being abused online, long before their loved ones ever knew they were victimized. Surviving victims and their families are unable to sue the social media companies that criminals use to commit these heinous acts due to protections under Section 230.
This bipartisan legislation would repeal Section 230 two years after the date of enactment so that those harmed online can bring legal action against the companies, and finally hold them accountable for the harms that occur on their platforms.
This bill is endorsed by Enough Is Enough, Zero Abuse Project, National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), Institute for Family Studies, American Principles Project, Bull Moose Project, Protect Young Eyes, Concerned Women for America Action, Fairplay for Kids, ParentsSOS, David’s Legacy Foundation, Digital Progress Institute, Rights4Girls and Digital Childhood Alliance.
“I am extremely pleased that there is such wide and deep bipartisan support for repealing Section 230, which protects social media companies from being sued by the people whose lives they destroy,” Senator Lindsey Graham said. “Giant social media platforms are unregulated, immune from lawsuits and are making billions of dollars in advertising revenue off some of the most unsavory content and criminal activity imaginable. It is past time to allow those who have been harmed by these behemoths to have their day in court.”
View the full text of the bill to sunset Section 230 immunity online.
