House Energy and Commerce
Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) have released the Section 230
Sunset Act, which would end
Section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act.
This bill would be a disaster for millions of interactive computer services, including websites, e-commerce stores, and other small businesses. Section 230 protects platforms like eBay, YouTube, X, Truth Social, Rumble from liability claims over content posted by users. The ability of people to post reels on Facebook or product offerings on eBay would end. The protection Section 230 provides from a swarm of trial lawyers filing grievance lawsuits looking to squeeze dollars out of social media platforms is essential to a functioning interactive internet.
While millions of websites would be effectively forced to become one-way communications tools, denying hundreds of millions of people in America the ability to post a product for sale or voice an opinion to an audience that chooses to follow them, some big tech companies like Microsoft, which has little investment in interactive platforms, would benefit as their competitors' business models were effectively Destroyed.