DOJ To Propose Limiting Internet Firms’ Protections

The Justice Department is set to propose a roll back of legal protections that online platforms have enjoyed for more than two decades, in an effort to make tech companies more responsible in how they police their content, according to a Trump administration official.

The Wall Street Journal reports the department’s proposed reforms are designed to spur online platforms to be more aggressive in addressing illicit and harmful conduct on their sites, and to be fairer and more consistent in their decisions to take down content they find objectionable, the official said.

The Justice Department proposal is a legislative plan that would have to be adopted by Congress.

The move represents an escalation in the continuing clash between the Trump administration and big tech firms such as Twitter Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit and Facebook Inc.

Last month, President Trump signed an executive order that sought to target the legal protections of social media companies, responding to concerns among some conservatives about alleged online censorship by the platforms. The executive order sought to impose limits on legal immunity for social-media firms when they are deemed to unfairly curb users’ speech, for instance by deleting their posts or suspending their accounts

The legislative changes to be proposed by the Justice Department address some of the same types of concerns, but also extend more broadly, seeking to strip civil immunity afforded to tech firms in a range of other circumstances, the administration official said.