Abstract
For nearly thirty years, the legal framework for analyzing liability for claims of tortious wrongdoing on the Internet has been governed by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”). However, much has changed since the Act’s inception. Since Congress enacted the CDA, courts have interpreted its provisions far beyond their original meaning, creating a regime that ultimately destroys a prospective plaintiff’s ability to recover the equitable remedies once available to those seeking redress for online invasions of privacy and reputational harms.
As the Internet continues to grow and changes in technology rapidly develop, it is time to re-center equitable solutions by reforming this statute to better combat concerns that the law cannot keep up with the modern Internet. This Note analyzes changes to the Internet and social media platforms, trends in judicial outcomes before and after the passage of Section 230, and proposed changes to Section 230. This Note ultimately advocates for statutory reform that restores the original purpose of Section 230 to aid online safety and free expression, in addition to proposing a broad shift of perspective on the statute and Internet technology to preserve a legal process that centers the end user of the Internet throughout the lawmaking process.
Recommended Citation
Peyton Friedlander,
Recovering From The Ego Death Of The Internet: How the Communications Decency Act has Shattered Cyber-Libertarianism and the Non-Exceptionalist Move Toward a Brighter Digital World,
32
Mich. Tech. L. Rev.
201
(2025).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mtlr/vol32/iss1/4