A new article titled “‘Worst of Both Worlds’ FOSTA Signed Into Law, Completing Section 230’s Evisceration” was just posted to law professor Eric Goldman’s Technology & Marketing Law Blog.
Eric’s post is well worth reading in full. Eric notes that major services, including Google and Microsoft, are taking steps to ban legal content in the aftermath of FOSTA’s passage. Eric summarizes the outcome fairly succinctly: “So just to make the point obvious: as opponents warned Congress, even before signing, FOSTA suppressed legal Internet content for no apparent benefit to sex trafficking victims. It’s a terrible deal for everyone.”
If you operate an internet service that allows user-created content, it is critical that you seek legal advice as to how this dramatic narrowing of Section 230 — the law that arguably fostered the success of Facebook, Twitter, Google, and most of the services we now take for granted — will impact your business practices. Failure to adapt to the new law could easily result in civil liability