How the Supreme Court could soon change free speech on the internet
Summary
When Elon Musk announced his offer to buy Twitter for more than $40 billion, he told the public his vision for the social media site was to make sure its "an inclusive arena for free speech." It also claimed the law would violate platforms own First Amendment right to editorial discretion and "impermissibly restricts how publishers may address or promote content that a government censor thinks unsuitable for minors." Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, which has advocated for the California law and other measures to protect kids online, criticized arguments from tech-backed groups against the legislation. "Without Section 230, some websites would be forced to overblock, filtering content that could create any potential legal risk, and might shut down some services altogether," General Counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado wrote in a blog post summarizing Googles position. Jain of CDT pointed to Craigslists decision to take down its personal ads section altogether in the wake of SESTA-FOSTAs passage "because it was just too difficult to sort of make those fine-grained distinctions" between legal services and illegal sex trafficking.