Zuckerberg wants tougher media law for online platforms in the US

Google’s Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey appear before the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday to discuss tackling online disinformation. There has been a lot of talk in US politics in recent years about whether or not to repeal Section 230, a law that states that social media companies cannot be prosecuted for what their users post.

The House of Representatives released its statements on Wednesday. Pichai warns against the complete withdrawal of article 230. “Without article 230, online platforms will ban too much content or no longer filter content at all,” he writes.

Prove that you can maintain

The proposal of Zuckerberg keep on going. He believes section 230 needs to be changed. Only tech companies that can prove that they are doing their best to prevent the entry of illegal content should be protected by law, he says. An “independent party” must develop guidelines that companies can verify.

It does not want privacy and encryption to be part of this policy. According to Zuckerberg, these topics are so complex that they require more time and attention. Some section 230 invoices require backdoors to be built into the encryption of messaging services such as WhatsApp.

Experts think it is a bad idea to make such backdoors. Criminals could also use it to eavesdrop on users.