Civil Liability ‘Fatal Flaw’
While NetChoice has called PACT Act “one of the few serious” Section 230 bills, the tech trade group still criticized its “fatal flaw” of holding tech companies liable for following federal civil laws. Currently, Section 230 holds companies liable for following federal criminal laws.
“By subjecting websites to federal civil liability, the bill is far more radical than it appears and would lead to legitimate speech being removed from the internet as websites take a better-safe-than-sorry approach in taking down user posts,” Chris Marchese, counsel at NetChoice, which represents Facebook Inc., Google LLC, and Twitter Inc., said in an emailed response.