Commissioner Starks Statement on NTIA's Section 230 Petition

The rules NTIA has proposed are ill-advised, and the Commission should dispose of this Petition as quickly as possible. As a threshold matter, NTIA has not made the case that Congress gave the FCC any role here. Section 230 is best understood as it has long been understood: as an instruction to courts about when liability should not be imposed. The proposed rules themselves are troubling. Among other substantive problems, NTIA seems to have failed to grasp how vast and diverse the ecosystem of interactive computer services is. Every comment section on the Internet would be subject to scrutiny. Imposing intermediary liability on those services—or creating an environment in which those services have an incentive not to moderate content at all— would prove devastating to competition, diversity, and vibrant public spaces online. I continue to believe that these rules reflect the President’s attempt at retaliation and intimidation—at the very time when social media companies’ decisions could impact his own electoral future. This dark cloud over online free speech will cast a lingering shadow on our elections. The FCC should act quickly to end this unfortunate detour and get back to the critical work of closing the digital divide.