The US Supreme Court came down on the side of Silicon Valley this week. In two separate rulings, the court said technology companies were not legally responsible for terrorist content posted by their users. Critically for Big Tech, the judges did not water down Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act – a 26 year-old legal provision protecting social media platforms from liability from what third parties post (for more background, see the Tech States Sensemaker). In Twitter v Taamneh, the court ruled that Twitter would not have to face accusations that it aided and abetted terrorism when it hosted tweets created by Islamic State. The court also dismissed Gonzalez v Google, which argued that YouTube, the Google-owned video platform, promoted terrorist content to interested users. The decisions mean that any future narrowing of Section 230 will have to come from Congress rather than the courts.
