The Bipartisan Representatives Who Originally Wrote the Law Champion 230
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and former Republican congressman from California Chris Cox were, in part, the original authors of the Communications Decency Act and 230 in particular. They told the court in a brief that the original intent behind 230 was to make the person who created the content, whether that’s a video, post, or a tweet, are also the ones legally responsible for it, rather than the site or medium where it was posted. They further argued the original bill was drafted in a “technology-neutral manner” to apply to any future means of content distribution.
The two original authors argued that companies were already doing content recommendations back when the law went into effect in 1996.
“The real-time transmission of user-generated content that Section 230 fosters has become a backbone of online activity, relied upon by innumerable Internet users and platforms alike,” the pair wrote.
