Sunsetting Section 230 Will Limit Free Expression

Last Updated on May 21, 2024, 6:25 pm ET

photo by Chris Ried on Unsplash

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a hearing on a legislative proposal to “sunset” Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act by December 31, 2025. ARL joined a letter urging Congress to consider the broad implications that sunsetting Section 230 would have on libraries, educational institutions, and internet infrastructure providers.

Libraries uphold democratic principles by providing access to information. But, in an op-ed, the bill’s sponsors wrote, “Big Tech has failed to uphold American democratic values and be fair stewards of the speech they host.” ARL and our coalition partners are concerned that, by continuing to frame the Section 230 debate around Big Tech, Congress will miss the implications that sunsetting Section 230 would have on libraries.

Libraries provide users with internet access, maintain repositories of scholarly works uploaded by members of academic communities, offer interactive programs, and host online discussions. Without Section 230, libraries would be forced to carefully monitor and in some situations restrict this activity to avoid liability.  Libraries currently remove defamatory, illegal, or offensive content according to their own policies once they become aware of it, but repealing Section 230 would force them to be much more proactive.

The bill’s sponsors say their measure will restore the internet as a “force for free expression.” But, introducing new liability such that libraries are forced to monitor and remove community-generated content more aggressively, or restrict open forums such as institutional repositories, will inevitably limit free expression, online speech, and scholarship.

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