Should tech platforms stop using Section 230 as an excuse to hide fake content or misinformation? Reply to Mitch Smith and Anomalous Hinson

Musk posts should be clearly labeled a deepfake by Microsoft. “Congress should require AI system providers to use state-of-the-art provenance tooling to label synthetic content,” says Smith. It is essential that people are able to trust the information and know whether it is manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence.

Digital forgeries include deepfakes since they were created or altered to look like a real person and are considered part of digital audiovisual material. Measures to prevent privacy violations, a clear way to report them and a process to remove them within 24 hours are required by the duty of care.

The company had to put in more safety controls for its own products after a loophole in its image creator allowed people to create explicit images of celebrities like Taylor Swift. “The private sector has a responsibility to innovate and implement safeguards that prevent the misuse of AI,” says Smith.

In statements, both Auchincloss and Hinson said tech platforms shouldn’t be able to use Section 230 as an excuse not to protect users from these harms. “Congress must prevent these corporations from evading responsibility over the sickening spread of malicious deepfakes and digital forgeries on their platforms,” Auchincloss said. Hinson said Big Tech companies should not be able to hide if they don’t protect users from intimate privacy violations.

Two House lawmakers are proposing a bill that will protect tech companies from being sued if they do not remove deepfakes from their platforms.

The Kids Online Safety Act is expected to be approved by the Senate on Tuesday and include a duty of care, the same mechanism used in the Intimate Privacy Protection Act. That might suggest it’s becoming a popular way to create new protections on the internet.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have long wished to narrow Section 230 protection for platforms they fear have abused a legal shield created for the industry when it was made up of much smaller players. Republicans and Democrats can not agree on how the statute should be changed. One notable exception was when Congress passed FOSTA-SESTA, carving out sex trafficking charges from Section 230 protection.