A new bipartisan bill could fundamentally change Section 230, the cornerstone law protecting internet platforms in the United States, by giving it an expiration date.
According to The Information, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham are planning legislation that would set Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to expire on January 1, 2027.
The bill has gained substantial bipartisan support, with Republican Senators Josh Hawley and Marsha Blackburn, along with Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Amy Klobuchar, already signing on as co-sponsors. Two additional Democratic senators are considering supporting the measure.
The initiative has received additional momentum from President Trump, who has long advocated for Section 230's removal. His recently appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has indicated the agency might reinterpret the law.
Using expiration as leverage
Rather than outright elimination, the bill's architects have a different strategy in mind. A congressional staffer familiar with the law's development told The Information that the threat of expiration is meant to bring tech companies to the negotiating table for new regulations.
Democrats want platforms to take a stronger stance on content moderation, while Republicans view Section 230 as enabling political censorship and want to limit platform moderation powers. These opposing viewpoints have, surprisingly, united both parties behind the bill.
Critics say this approach amounts to coercion. Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, warns that without Section 230, platforms would face an impossible choice: either pre-screen every user post or abandon moderation entirely.
Adam Kovacevich from the Chamber of Progress lobby group puts it more colorfully, saying platforms without Section 230 would become either a heavily censored "Disneyland" version or an unregulated "4chan-like wasteland."
The immediate impact on AI services like ChatGPT remains unclear. Despite numerous lawsuits against companies like OpenAI, courts haven't definitively ruled whether generative AI outputs fall under Section 230 protection. Experts consider this unlikely since generated content, while triggered by user requests, isn't solely user-created.
