Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association has joined more than a dozen bipartisan civil society, free expression advocates and tech groups in a letter opposing the “No Section 230 Immunity for AI Act” (S. 1993). In a letter to Senate leaders, the coalition warns of the consequences to online speech, content moderation and innovation if liability protections that allow online sites to host user-generated content are removed from broadly defined generative artificial intelligence tools.
CCIA has advocated for Section 230 protections since the law that paved the way for internet content was enacted more than 25 years ago.
The following can be attributed to CCIA President Matt Schruers:
“Major changes in law such as this deserve careful consideration rather than a rushed hotline process without adequate debate. This oddly and broadly written legislation could immunize bad actors, while subjecting legitimate content providers and their users to lawsuits and restrictions on online content.
“The bill is overly broad and could make even predictive text subject to litigation. Even the possibility that generative AI could have been used to produce content could subject online services to costly, potentially meritless lawsuits. It could also make protecting users online from fraud or dangerous content more difficult, as many services rely partly on automated tools to enforce their user agreements.”