U.S. President Joe Biden recently penned an opinion piece (opens in new tab) in the Wall Street Journal calling for Democrats and Republicans to unite over concerns that major tech companies are not taking responsibility for content posted on social media platforms.

"Millions of young people suffer from bullying, violence, trauma, and mental health issues. Biden says, "We must hold social media companies accountable for the experiments they are conducting on our children for profit."

It is thanks to the language of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that social media companies in the U.S. are effectively untouchable with regard to the content that is posted.

If you ask what Section 230 is, it contains a passage that is well known as one of the 26 most important words in the technology field:

"No provider or user of interactive computer services shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of information provided by any other information content provider

This includes.

This was born out of the dichotomy that the web was then caught in at the dawn of the web. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's 2020 Review Document (opens in new tab) (PDF warning), prior to the enactment of Section 230, platforms were "not liable as publishers even if the content is defamatory" unless they actually attempted to remove it through moderation It was. Therefore, most platforms did not care.

Section 230 was enacted to give companies additional protection and freedom to moderate in the hopes of choking off emerging Internet companies. Unfortunately, they ended up being part of the problem.

The reforms in the U.S. could mean big changes, and it is hoped that they will provide greater protection for victims of illegal activities as opposed to corporations, but Gizmodo (opens in new tab) takes a fair view. Under such strict policing, "will the Internet even function?

The EU is currently enforcing what is called the Digital Services Act (opens in new tab). This law threatens tech companies such as Facebook and YouTube with billions of dollars worth of fines and forces companies to improve their policies regarding illegal content.

In keeping with growing concerns about the use of personal data, Biden said, "Big tech companies often use users' personal data to direct users to extreme and polarizing content that keeps them logging in and clicking."

Time will tell if this reform will happen. The reality is that whatever the reform is, it will likely end up being something that another group wants to repeal in 10 years. The development of legislation for the Internet is indeed a tremendous task.