As the U.S. Supreme Court considers questions about liability shields under
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, UC Berkeley professor and CEP
Senior Advisor Dr. Hany Farid co-authored an op-ed published by Wired on Monday
that said tech platforms, such as Google-owned YouTube, should not be shielded
from liability for the effects of their harmful product.





<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>



ICYMI: Section 230 Should Not Protect Companies From Negligent Product Design



(New York, N.Y.) — As the U.S. Supreme Court considers questions about
liability shields under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, UC
Berkeley professor and CEP Senior AdvisorDr. Hany Farid
<[link removed]> co-authored an op-ed
published
<[link removed]>
byWired on Monday that said tech platforms, such as Google-owned YouTube,
should not be shielded from liability for the effects of their harmful product.
Oral arguments inGonzalez v. Google, which questions whether Google is shielded
from claims extending from the death of an American college student in an ISIS
attack after YouTube recommended ISIS videos to the attacker through its
algorithms, concluded last month.



Dr. Farid and his co-author, Dr. Brandie Nonnecke, assert that YouTube’s
recommendation algorithms are negligently designed and urge the Court to
consider that “features like YouTube's Watch Next and Recommended for You …
materially contribute to harm because they prioritize outrageous and
sensational material, and they encourage and monetarily reward users for
creating such content. YouTube designed its recommendation features to increase
user engagement and ad revenue. The creators of this system should have known
that it would encourage and promote harmful behavior.”



Prior to the op-ed in Wired, Dr. Farid testified
<[link removed]>
before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that “YouTube has argued that the
recommendation algorithms are neutral.” However, “[If] YouTube can’t
distinguish between a cat video and an ISIS video, they’ve negligently designed
their recommendation engine.”



CEP and Dr. Farid filed an amicus brief supporting petitioners in Gonzalez,
urging the court to reverse a favorable ruling for Google in the Ninth Circuit,
which applied a broad interpretation of Section 230’s liability shield. The
brief argues and cites public reporting and Google’s own statements that
Google’s recommendation algorithms are not “content-neutral” as the company
maintains and that it “pushed ISIS videos onto the devices of terrorists” to
monetize content.



To read the amicus curiae brief, please click here
<[link removed]>
.



To read Drs. Farid and Nonnecke’s op-ed in Wired, “The Case for Regulating
Platform Design,” please click here
<[link removed]>
.



To watch Dr. Farid’s testimony at the hearing Platform Accountability:
Gonzalez and Reform before the U.S. Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Privacy,
Technology, and the Law, please clickhere
<[link removed]>
.



###





Unsubscribe
<[link removed]>