President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, is a longtime opponent of Big Tech.
Carr wants to do away with many of the protections afforded to large social media platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The provision gives online platforms some protections from legal consequences for third-party content posted on their sites and is one of the defining legal doctrines of the internet. Large platforms like Meta, YouTube, X, and TikTok allow users to post freely on their websites because they know that they can’t face any legal repercussions. For example, if a user on X libels someone, the individual might be held accountable, but the platform would remain immune from any civil or criminal suits.
