Project Veritas strikes again! An insider at Google has leaked documents that show insiders at Google presenting a letter to their CEO Sundar Pichai to drop Breitbart Advertising on AdSense, one of the largest advertising platforms on the internet today and to "end the business relationship" with Breitbart.
Google and other Big Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter enjoy protection from immunity under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which states, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider" (47 U.S.C. § 230).
In other words, online platforms that host or republish speech are protected against a range of laws that might otherwise be used to hold them legally responsible for what others say and do. So, to put it in layman's terms platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, Google Search, Facebook, Twitter, Periscope or others cannot be held liable for defamation, and other acts if a third party content provider posts content on their platform.
The platforms cannot pick and choose what content visitors to the platform can see. If that were the case, they would be considered a publisher and would not enjoy the immunity of Section 230. The protection is extended to regular Internet Service Providers, but also includes any online service that publishes third-party content.
What are your thoughts? Should big tech have their immunity stripped? Join in on the conversation.