The “big five” tech companies—Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft—play a critical role in today’s marketplace and in society at large. As commentators have pointed out, the technology industry has largely developed free from any significant federal regulation, particularly when viewed in contrast to potentially analogous industries such as radio, television, or telephone services. There are no omnibus federal laws akin to the Communications Act or the Federal Aviation Act governing the industry as a whole. Instead, the internet has largely operated under a system of self-governance. In fact, one federal law has partially shielded online service providers from lawsuits that might otherwise limit their conduct: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA) immunizes many online platforms that serve as hosts for user-generated content from some lawsuits that would impose liability on these platforms for their content-publishing activities. Section 230 immunity is not absolute, though. Among other exceptions, the law does not shield online platforms from prosecution under federal criminal statutes—and does not shield platforms from liability for their own content. Nonetheless, Section 230 does broadly protect platforms’ content-hosting activities.
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