Justice Department will reportedly propose limits to online platforms’ legal protections

The Department of Justice will propose to remove legal protection for online platforms that has been in place since the 1990s, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday to make websites more vigilant in monitoring content. It follows President Donald Trump’s executive decree Target group social media companies.

The proposal could be announced on Wednesday, the journal said, citing an official from the Trump administration. The order from the President who came in end of Mayrequested a government review in section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 1996, which protects online businesses from liability for user-published content.

The legislative changes proposed by the Justice Department, which would have to be passed by Congress, would deprive technology companies of civil immunity in various circumstances, the journal said. It would allegedly remove legal protection if, for example, platforms facilitate online fraud or drug trafficking and cases of online child exploitation, terrorism or cyberstalking.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s executive order followed Twitter’s decision in May to label two presidential tweets about mail-in polls that contained “potentially misleading information.” The argument took a different turn than Twitter then hid a tweet Trump’s protests in Minneapolis and behind a label that says it violates the company’s “glorify violence” rules.

Twitter’s action appears to have been a turning point in a long-tense relationship between conservatives and social media companies. Conservatives say their speech is censored by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, although companies have repeatedly denied participating in such censorship. Liberals have also criticized how social media companies moderate content and raised concerns about disinformation and hate speech.

The DOJ proposal would undermine the legal protection of social media companies Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which was adopted in 1996 according to the journal. Section 230 is considered the most important law to protect freedom of speech on the Internet. The provision essentially protects companies that host user-created content from complaints about contributions to their services.

The law not only protects Internet service providers such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, but also social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google. It also provides comprehensive protection that allows social media platforms to choose how they restrict content and what content they restrict.

According to the Journal, the DOJ proposal calls for “extensive” moderation of the content platforms for restrictions.

Earlier this month, the Center for Democracy and Technology sued Trump on the grounds that his executive regulation violated the first change and was retaliatory against Twitter.