Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued once again on Monday that his colleagues should really take up a case that would give them an opportunity to narrow the scope of tech's favorite legal provision: Section 230.
While agreeing the high court shouldn't take up a specific case involving Meta, Thomas nonetheless took the time to write: "We should, however, address the proper scope of immunity under §230 in an appropriate case."
It's not the first time Thomas, who has made clear he's among the tech-skepticalconservatives working in the U.S. government, has gone after Sec. 230.
The law helped build the modern internet by allowing platforms to avoid being held liable for content that users post. The companies say it balances free speech while allowing them to police their own services for the most objectionable content, but both sides of the political aisle increasingly say Sec. 230 allows platforms to ignore the ills of social media.
In particular, Republicans, who claim the platforms unfairly censor them, have sought to rein in the provision as a way to punish social media companies.Thomas himself warned in 2020 of "serious consequences" from courts interpreting the immunity too broadly.
On Monday, Thomas returned to the issue, saying that "the arguments in favor of broad immunity" under the provision are not grounded in the statute's text.
In addition, on Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a shareholder lawsuit against Google over security flaws it didn't disclose.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE