Supreme Court to Make Ruling on Section 230

The Supreme Court will consider the landmark Gonzalez v. Google case on Section 230 later this month, which could change how tech companies moderate user content online. The decision made could also affect the individual user’s right to free speech on the internet.

The Gonzalez v Google case came about from the coordinated terror attacks claimed by ISIS in Paris in November, 2015. Among those killed was a single American, Nohemi Gonzalez. Her family has since sought legal remedies against Google, arguing that YouTube was partially responsible for Gonzalez’s death due to its algorithmic recommendation system that pushed ISIS recruitment content to certain user profiles.

Google cited Section 230 to defend against the litigation. This law protects providers and users from being treated as the publisher or speaker of another user’s content on their platform. This means that an internet service cannot be held legally liable for its user-generated content. Due to this, a lower court ruled in favor of Google. In response, Gonzalez’s family appealed to the Supreme Court.

Depending on the ruling, Section 230 could be amended or even repealed. This could force tech companies to more strongly moderate user content that could be seen as unlawful, hate speech, or misinformation.

Many tech companies have sided with Google, including Meta, Twitter, and Reddit, who have submitted amicus briefs to the court in the Gonzalez case. Within its brief, Google contended that websites such as Google and Etsy depend on algorithms to sort the huge volume of user-generated content. Without those algorithms in place, Google stated “the internet would devolve into a disorganized mess and a litigation minefield.”

Over the years, politicians on both sides of the aisle have also called for Section 230 to be amended. Democrats have argued that internet services should have a greater responsibility to remove misinformation, while Republicans have criticized Section 230 for giving companies too much power to censor user content, citing that it violates the First Amendment.

The court will hear the first arguments on February 21st, 2023. If the section is amended or repealed, tech companies, large and small, may be forced to vastly overhaul their approach to user-generated content.