Former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenSanders to headline Iowa event amid impeachment trial Hillicon Valley: Biden calls for revoking tech legal shield | DHS chief ‘fully expects’ Russia to try to interfere in 2020 | Smaller companies testify against Big Tech ‘monopoly power’ Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball on Sanders-Warren feud: ‘Don’t play to the pundits, play to voters’ MORE called for revoking a key legal protection for online companies in an interview with The New York Times released Friday.
The presidential hopeful railed against Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives platforms legal immunity for content posted by third-party users while also giving them legal cover to take good-faith efforts to moderate their platforms, when asked about his concerns with Facebook.
“[The Times] can’t write something you know to be false and be exempt from being sued. But he can,” Biden told the Times editorial board, referring to Facebook CEO Mark ZuckerbergMark Elliot ZuckerbergHillicon Valley: Biden calls for revoking tech legal shield | DHS chief ‘fully expects’ Russia to try to interfere in 2020 | Smaller companies testify against Big Tech ‘monopoly power’ Michigan governor urges Zuckerberg to enforce community guidelines after hate speech, threats surface Smaller companies testify against Big Tech’s ‘monopoly power’ MORE.
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“The idea that it’s a tech company is that Section 230 should be revoked, immediately should be revoked, number one. For Zuckerberg and other platforms.”
Biden’s firm stance against the legal protection breaks with the other Democratic nomination contenders, some of whom have been critical of the law but none of whom have called for it to be “revoked.”
“It should be revoked because it is not merely an internet company,” Biden said when pressed about the importance of the law. “It is propagating falsehoods they know to be false, and we should be setting standards not unlike the Europeans are doing relative to privacy.”
His comments suggest that Biden may want to revoke protections from Facebook, rather than removing the law entirely. The Hill has reached out to Biden’s campaign for clarification.
As president, Biden would not be able to unilaterally remove Section 230. His comments suggest, however, that he would be willing to expend political capital to press Congress into acting on the internet law.
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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have increasingly raised concerns about the statute, floating potential amendments to it. Sen. Josh HawleyJoshua (Josh) David HawleyBiden calls for revoking key online legal protection House poised to hand impeachment articles to Senate Pelosi set to send impeachment articles to the Senate next week MORE (R-Mo.) introduced legislation last year that would require platforms prove they are politically “neutral” before receiving Section 230 protections.
Former Rep. Beto O’RourkeBeto O’RourkeBiden calls for revoking key online legal protection Trump mocks Booker over suspended presidential campaign Julián Castro endorses Warren in 2020 race MORE (D-Texas), who suspended his presidential campaign last year, was the first Democratic contender to defend making changes to Section 230 as part of his platform.
This is not the first time Biden has criticized Section 230 protections in the context of Facebook.
“I, for one, think we should be considering taking away [Facebook’s] exemption that they cannot be sued for knowingly engaged on, in promoting something that’s not true,” he told CNN in November.
Biden has been increasingly critical of Facebook since the platform declined to remove an ad run by President TrumpDonald John TrumpNational Archives says it altered Trump signs, other messages in Women’s March photo Dems plan marathon prep for Senate trial, wary of Trump trying to ‘game’ the process Democratic lawmaker dismisses GOP lawsuit threat: ‘Take your letter and shove it’ MORE‘s reelection campaign accusing the former vice president of using his office to pressure Ukrainian officials to drop an investigation into Burisma. His son Hunter Biden sat on the board of the company.
Facebook has since defended its policy to not fact-check political ads several times, essentially allowing politicians to lie on its platform with limited exceptions.
The social media giant declined to comment on Biden’s comments to the Times, but pointed The Hill to testimony from Facebook’s vice president of global policy management Monika Bickert last week.
When asked about Section 230 by Sen. Roy BluntRoy Dean BluntSenate GOP mulls speeding up Trump impeachment trial Biden calls for revoking key online legal protection GOP threatens to weaponize impeachment witnesses amid standoff MORE (R-Mo.), Bickert described it as an “important part of my team being able to do what we do” which “gives us the ability to proactively look for abuse and remove it.”