US Internet Association Stands Against Government Petition on Industry Regulations

MOSCOW, September 3- The US Internet Association, representing such companies as Google, Amazon, eBay and Facebook, on Tuesday filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission to reject a government petition on new regulations in the internet industry. In late July, the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a division of…

MOSCOW, September 3 (Sputnik) – The US Internet Association (IA), representing such companies as Google, Amazon, eBay and Facebook, on Tuesday filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject a government petition on new regulations in the internet industry.

In late July, the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a division of the Department of Commerce, filed a petition with the FCC to reinterpret the 1996 law and to demand more transparency from social media in the process of content moderation. The agency in particular asked the FCC to require social media to disclose accurate information regarding its content management mechanisms in order to enable users to make more informed decisions regarding competitive alternatives.

“If implemented, this Petition will fundamentally break many products and services that consumers rely upon and use every day. NTIA’s Petition lacks a legitimate legal basis and would cause serious harm to companies’ content moderation efforts that protect consumers and that reasonable people want platforms to take,” IA Deputy General Counsel Elizabeth Banker said, as quoted in the press release.

According to Banker, this petition would “throw two decades” of applying Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that allows companies “to remove content like fraud, manipulated media, and promotion of suicide without facing a flood of litigation.”

Section 230 protects intermediaries from legal liability for republishing information and content disseminated by third parties.

President Donald Trump repeatedly accused social media and internet firms of unfairly censoring conservative views, after Twitter began placing warning labels on some of his tweets.