Good intentions can sometimes make for bad law as critics express their dismay at the U.S. Congress for enacting SESTA/FOSTA to curtail online sex trafficking, laws that makes platforms such as Google and Facebook liable for certain types of user speech. Section 230 protected platforms form lawsuits involving third party content, but the new laws will hold platforms liable retroactively and liable even when they are unaware that their sites are used for trafficking. (Electronic Frontier Foundation, March 21, 2018, by Elliot Harmon)
The Center for Democracy & Technology writes that the legislation would be a disaster for online companies, “If YouTube or Craigslist were responsible for everyone one of its users’ posts, the companies would flounder under the sheer volume of content to review.” (cdt, March 8, 2018, by Liz Woolery)