Will Social Media Platforms Get a Friend Request From the FCC?
The federal government's relationship with social media remains complicated and that seems unlikely to change any time soon even as the White House reportedly mulls involving the FCC and FTC with the way content is moderated.
August 21, 2019 at 03:17 PM
4 minute read
|
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that representatives from top tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter met with Trump administration officials about the possibility of developing a tool that could scan social media posts to help predict mass shootings.
One day later, CNN ran a story about a draft executive order from the White House that would create new laws surrounding how and when social media platforms remove or block content on their platforms while assigning crucial roles regarding the proposals to both the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
Both stories broke at a time when U.S. regulators are still trying to clarify their relationship with social media platforms. But heavier government involvement with the way that content is published and utilized on those sites is not entirely out of the question, provided it stays just this side of free speech and censorship concerns.
And that may be easier said than done.
"There's a lot that we haven't figured out about basic human-to-human, face-to-face interaction with how the law plays out, much less than online," said Christopher Ballod, a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith. "It's fraught with a lot of issues."
Many of those issues stem from privacy, a perennial thorn in the side of social media that would seem especially relevant were the government to actually collaborate with tech companies on a tool that scanned posts, photos or videos in an effort to predict violence.
Yet, assuming the tool in question were to take the shape of an analytic solution, it wouldn't necessarily run afoul of privacy the way that it's conceived in the United States.
Jarno Vanto, a partner in the privacy and cybersecurity group at Crowell & Moring, said that the U.S. typically considers content a user uploads to a social media site to be public from the moment they hit "share." This stands in juxtaposition with many European countries, which would consider such information to be personal data and thus subject to certain rights.
"If you put in place analytics tools [in the U.S.] that would then analyze the type of content posted on social media platforms." Vanto said. "That would more likely be allowed in terms of even if it were a government tool because it would not filter certain kinds of content."
However, if the same analytic solution were ever to cross the line from serving as a law enforcement notification system into a tool that automatically censored posts by virtue of their content, there could be trouble. But trouble for whom?
"When we look at government bodies engaging in the vetting of content, I'm 100% sure that that would be challenged on a First Amendment basis," Vanto said.
Because they are private entities, social media companies tend to have more freedom to restrict or edit content as they see fit. Also, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act says that providers will not be held liable for actions taken in good faith to "restrict access or availability" of content deemed obscene, filthy or excessively violent, among other things.
Per Vanto, that protection from liability would typically hold unless the social media platform made its own edits to a piece of material or published original content itself.
According to CNN, however, the draft executive order developed by the White House would ask the FCC to "find that social media sites do not qualify for the good-faith immunity if they remove or suppress content without notifying the user who posted the material, or if the decision is proven to be evidence of anticompetitive, unfair or deceptive practices."
The "unfair" element could be a sticking point. For example, the Communications Act of 1934 required broadcasters to provide equal time to all candidates for a public office and failure to do so might have brought them into conflict with the FCC.
However, Ballod, at Lewis Brisbois, points out that the internet is arguably more accessible to the common person than a television studio. Still, so long as the FCC isn't targeting individual posts, there's a chance it could wind up leveraging some influence over social media platforms as a whole.
"If the position were taken that a social media platform does little or nothing to prevent disinformation, misinformation, abuse, deceit, fraud and dangerous content I think then you have a leg to stand on," Ballod said.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllThe FTC's Rebecca Slaughter Wants Fair Competition, and a Good Night's Sleep
'Rocket Docket': EDVA Judge Controls Google's Fate in Ad Tech Monopoly Trial
4 minute readAlabama Man Arrested After Causing Bitcoin Price to Surge, Then Plummet After Fake SEC Tweet
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Infant Formula Judge Sanctions Kirkland's Jim Hurst: 'Overtly Crossed the Lines'
- 2Trump's Return to the White House: The Legal Industry Reacts
- 3Election 2024: Nationwide Judicial Races and Ballot Measures to Watch
- 4Climate Disputes, International Arbitration, and State Court Limitations for Global Issues
- 5Judicial Face-Off: Navigating the Ethical and Efficient Use of AI in Legal Practice [CLE Pending]
- 6How Much Does the Frequency of Retirement Withdrawals Matter?
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250