5th Circuit blocks Texas law requiring websites to filter "harmful" speech

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美国第五巡回上诉法院一纸裁定，叫停德克萨斯州要求网站为未成年人过滤“有害”言论的法律。核心在于：法院认定这项强制监控和过滤的规定，被1996年联邦《通讯规范法》第230条所“优先取代”。第230条堪称互联网的“保护伞”——它规定平台无需为用户发布的内容承担法律责任，同时鼓励平台自主删不良信息。德州这部《通过家长赋权保护儿童上网法案》却强制网站必须监控并屏蔽某些“有害”内容，反而可能逼着平台过度审查，甚至为了防止担责而删掉大量合法言论。法院的裁决意味着，网站暂时不必按德州要求部署内容过滤器，用户依然能自由发言。对普通人来说，这意味着上网体验不会因为各州不同法律而变得支离破碎：在德克萨斯州看论坛讨论，不至于突然发现一大半帖子被“合规”筛掉。但这场争议远未结束——它折射出如何在保护儿童与维护言论自由之间找到平衡，而科技巨头与州政府之间的博弈还将在更多法庭上演。

Texas cannot enforce a law's requirement that websites block minors from seeing harmful speech, the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled on Friday. Big Tech lobby groups challenged the Texas "law’s requirement that certain social media-based 'digital service providers' (DSPs) monitor and filter content accessible to known minors to prevent exposure to several categories of potentially harmful speech," judges wrote. In a 2-1 ruling in favor of the tech groups' challenge, judges said the monitoring and filtering requirement is preempted by Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act of 1996. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice challenged portions of the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act (SCOPE Act), which applies to websites and online applications that collect or process personally identifying information. The tech groups won a preliminary injunction from a district court. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed to the 5th Circuit but wasn't able to convince judges to reverse the injunction that prevents enforcement of the monitoring and filtering rules.Read full article Comments