Advertisement
Facebook and Twitter should be held accountable for content | Editorial
It’s time to change federal law and treat social media companies as publishers.
 
President Donald Trump spread a baseless claim that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered a staff member in 2001. (AP/Steven Senne/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump spread a baseless claim that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered a staff member in 2001. (AP/Steven Senne/Alex Brandon) [ Associated Press ]
This article represents the opinion of the Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board.
Published May 29, 2020

President Donald Trump’s promotion of a baseless conspiracy theory regarding the death of a staffer of a former member of Congress from Florida raises a broader issue. Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies should be considered publishers. They should be subject to the same libel laws as newspaper publishers for the content they distribute, which would go a long way toward providing more accountability and curbing the flow of lies that pollute these social media pipelines.

In a series of tweets, Trump has been pushing the debunked claim that former U.S. Rep Joe Scarborough, now an MSNBC host and frequent critic of the president, was part of a conspiracy to murder one of his staffers in 2001. The staffer’s death in Fort Walton Beach was ruled an accident, Scarborough was in Washington at the time, and there is no evidence to support the baseless claims the president has spread. Yet Twitter has refused to delete Trump’s tweets, although it did apologize to the woman’s family and for the first time added labels to two other Trump tweets that spread misinformation about voter fraud. After Trump signed an executive order aimed at punishing Twitter for that, Twitter then labeled another Trump tweet about the police killing of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis. But if Twitter was as accountable for its content as the publishers of newspapers and other publications that are subject to libel laws, the lies about Scarborough never would have gotten this far.

Twitter is not the only social media company that falls short on taking responsibility and hiding behind its federal protection from libel laws. Facebook has been a prime vehicle for spreading unfounded conspiracy theories and other lies, yet the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook has shut down internal efforts to make the website less polarizing. This issue here is not about the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech but is not absolute. It is about responsibility and accountability from wealthy social media companies that should not be treated differently.

Congress passed legislation that exempts social media companies from the libel laws that apply to newspapers and other publishers in 1996, when the Internet was relatively new. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act referred specifically to any “interactive computer service,” because social media didn’t really exist as we know it now. The idea was to encourage innovation and new technology by creating a legal shield for these new companies that would provide open forums but have clear rules for moderating content. How quaint.

Facebook, which was founded in 2004, and Twitter, which was founded in 2006, are now worth tens of billions. Facebook played a key role in the 2016 election as it was used by Russians to advance conspiracy theories and other lies to influence to outcome. Twitter is the communications vehicle of choice for the president, who has more than 80 million followers and often tweets dozens of times a day without regard to the truthfulness of the information. Social media platforms are the primary source of news and information for millions of Americans, and it’s time they be held just as responsible as other publishers for their content.

There are vigorous efforts to shine a spotlight on those who use social media to spread conspiracy theories and other lies. PolitiFact, the largest political fact-checking news organization in the nation, checks thousands of statements each year and is based at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, which owns the Tampa Bay Times. The International Fact-Checking Network, also based at Poynter, involves more than 60 fact-checkers worldwide. Other media companies and nonprofits also are involved in fact-checking social media and educating the public on how to evaluate sources of information.

But there should be no distinction between traditional publishers and social media companies when it comes to libel law and being held accountable for the content they distribute.

Spend your days with Hayes

Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter

Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Changing federal law to level the playing field and hold these firms responsible for the content they publish on their sites is not a partisan issue, despite Trump’s claims that those platforms are silencing conservatives. The Justice Department held a workshop in February on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to explore potential changes. In a speech to the state attorneys general in December, U.S. Attorney General William Barr raised antitrust issues and noted the 1996 law was passed in a different era. He said ''many are concerned that Section 230 immunity has been extended far beyond what Congress originally intended. Ironically, Section 230 has enabled platforms to absolve themselves completely of responsibility for policing their platforms, while blocking or removing third-party speech — including political speech — selectively, and with impunity.”

What was conceived as a means of encouraging small start-ups in the new Internet era has now become a shield that creates a lack of accountability for some of the most valuable, influential companies in the nation. The law may have been well-intended in 1996, but nearly a quarter-century later the landscape has changed and the need for Facebook, Twitter and the rest to accept responsibility for the content they spread has never been greater. It’s time to change federal law and treat social media platforms as publishers.

Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Times Chairman and CEO Paul Tash, Editor of Editorials Tim Nickens, and editorial writers Elizabeth Djinis, John Hill and Jim Verhulst. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news