SPRINGFIELD (WGEM) – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said technology companies should no longer enjoy broad immunity for what people post on their platforms.
During a stop in Springfield on Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Congress should repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
“We created Section 230 at a time when social media was in its infancy and the idea was, ‘Well, we’ll take it slow and be gentle with them,'” Durbin said.
He said that by 2023 there would be more than 36 million suspected online files containing child abuse material, up from around 450,000 in 2004.
“More children than ever are experiencing violence and abuse because of the internet,” Durbin said. “The recent marriage of child abuse and technology has created an unprecedented public health crisis.”
For this reason, on July 30, the U.S. Senate passed the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act with broad bipartisan support.
“It would establish a duty of care requiring platforms to act in the best interests of children. It would also prevent platforms from collecting personal information from anyone under 16,” Durbin said.
The bill still has to pass the U.S. House of Representatives before it lands on the president’s desk. Responsibility for enforcing these standards would now be transferred to the Federal Trade Commission.
Durbin also supports the Strengthening Transparency and Commitment to Protecting Children Suffering Abuse and Maltreatment (STOP CSAM) Act. It would give parents the ability to force tech companies to remove sexually explicit images of their children and would give them the right to sue the companies if they don’t remove the content.
“We have to take it seriously,” he said. “That’s why I think what we’ve done is good, but if you give them civil liability and say, ‘If you do something like this, we’ll sue you until we can’t take it anymore,’ I think that would slow them down.”
Durbin said Section 230 currently makes it impossible for someone to file such a lawsuit against a technology company.
“Millions and millions of children are being exploited. This has to stop here and now. When you consider that the most dangerous thing that your grandchild or child can catch is this thing, it is time for us to act,” he said, holding a cellphone.
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