- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 22
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- Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'
- UK's William and Kate in first joint public engagement since cancer treatment
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- A very stiff breeze: BBC says sorry for 20,000 kph wind forecast
- Musk finally unveiling his long-promised robotaxi
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- US, Europe stocks fall on US inflation data
- US consumer inflation eases to 2.4% in September
- Hurricane Milton tornadoes kill four in Florida amid rescue efforts
- South Korea's Han Kang wins literature Nobel
- Ikea posts fall in annual sales after lowering prices
- Stock markets diverge, oil gains after China rebounds
- World can't 'waste time' trading climate change blame: COP29 hosts
- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
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- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as markets track Wall St record
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- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
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- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
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- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
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- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
US Supreme Court takes on immunity for tech giants
The US Supreme Court this week examines a quarter-century old law that has protected tech companies from lawsuits and prosecution for content posted by their users, with a chance that the rules governing the internet will no longer stand.
Enacted when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was just 11 years old and Google’s creation still two years off, Section 230 is seen as a fundamental law of the internet and considered inviolable by its staunch defenders.
Section 230 was part of the Communication Decency Act, an anti-pornography law signed in 1996, that helped set the rules of the road for the internet, which was still in its infancy as an online playground for all.
The idea was to protect the then embryonic internet sector from cascading lawsuits and to allow it to flourish, while encouraging tech companies to moderate their content.
At the time most of the attention went on limits put on sexual content, a part of the bill that was backed by then president Bill Clinton and that was later struck down by the Supreme Court in a landmark case.
But inserted into the legislation was Section 230 which stated that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher" or hold responsibility for content that came from an outside party.
This immunity is largely seen as the regulatory tweak that would eventually free the way for Google search and sow the seeds for the social media revolution.
Under the protection of Section 230, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube became the conduits of a world conversation without ever being at risk of lawsuit by someone taking offense at a tweet or a controversial video.
The law also protects Wikipedia or classified ads sites such as Craigslist whose success would also upend traditional media.
But opponents to the law would like to see platforms get sued for drug deals, cyber stalking and violent threats that take place on their sites.
To be sure, Section 230 is not free speech absolutism as endorsed by Elon Musk, the multibillionaire owner of Twitter.
Stung by scandals, big tech companies hire thousands of workers to moderate their platforms in order to preserve their huge audiences and big advertisers as well as avert closer government scrutiny.
But the work is never perfect, and companies still face challenges in policing posts from billions of users.
Courts in the US have regularly upheld Section 230 in its almost 30 years of existence, but its powerful backers are worried about the emotionally charged cases that will be put before the Supreme Court, both involving terrorism.
- 'Material support' for terrorism -
In two hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, the judges will listen to arguments brought by families of the victims of jihadist attacks who accuse Google and Twitter of having "helped" the perpetrators, the Islamic State group, by publishing its propaganda.
By recommending "ISIS videos to users, Google assists ISIS in spreading its message and thus provides material support to ISIS...", lawyers for the family of Nohemi Gonzalez said in their legal brief to the court.
Gonzalez, a 23-year-old US citizen, was killed when ISIS terrorists fired into an outdoor crowd at La Belle Equipe bistro in Paris.
Twenty-eight state governments are also calling for a rethink of Section 230.
"What was enacted as a narrow protection from defamation liability has become an all-purpose license to exploit and profit from harmful third-party conduct," said a brief from several of those states, including Alabama and California.
The novelty of the case is that complainants this time are isolating algorithms as the cause of the harm, arguing that the highly complex recommendation systems perfected by big platforms fall out of the scope of Section 230.
The big tech industry, but all sorts of other actors as well, are firmly opposed to revisiting Section 230 and to the latest arguments being put forward.
"If this case alters federal law, companies are likely to respond in one of two ways to protect themselves legally," warned Matt Schruers, head of the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
"Companies who could muster the resources would over-moderate everything, while others would throw up their hands and not moderate anything," he said.
In the other case to be heard on Wednesday, family members of Nawras Alassaf, a Jordanian killed in an IS group attack in Turkey, argue that Twitter did too little to weed out extremist content.
The court is expected to issue its rulings by June 30.
A.Samuel--CPN