US Supreme Court justices are showing restraint in a case that could overturn a fundamental tenet of today’s internet. It is about the scope of a US law from the 1990s, which exempts online services from liability for publishing content created by others.
The rule known as “Section 230” is considered an important protective shield against lawsuits, under which platforms such as Google, Facebook or Twitter could develop.
The nine Supreme Court justices held a hearing on Tuesday about a case involving Google’s video platform YouTube. It is a complaint filed by the family of an American student who died in the November 2015 terrorist attacks by the Islamic State (IS) terror militia in Paris.
She wants to hold YouTube liable because the platform’s algorithms recommended IS propaganda videos to users. In their questions to the lawyers, the judges indicated that they were quite skeptical about the position of the plaintiffs.
Judge Clarence Thomas stressed that the same algorithms are used that serve users harmless content, such as videos about preparing a rice dish. For this reason too, he could not understand the charge that the position was to assist and incite terrorism.
Plaintiff’s attorney Eric Schnapper also argued that the platform was liable because it generated the small preview images – so-called “thumbnails” – when the videos were shown. This means that YouTube itself is involved in content creation and falls outside the protective framework of Article 230, he said. Google attorney Lisa Blatt countered that the thumbnails were just recordings of videos made by others.
At the same time, the judges hinted that the use of artificial intelligence software – such as the technology behind the text engine ChatGPT on Microsoft’s search engine Bing – could change the situation for online platforms in the future. Judge Neil Gorsuch asked whether a service with text generated by such software would itself become a producer of content not covered by Section 230 protection.
(SDA)
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
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