Despite widespread vaccine availability, the United States is still struggling with the pandemic, as more than half of the population remains unvaccinated. To make matters worse, those refusing to take the shot are staunchly opposed to ever taking it, likely fueled by the conspiracy theories and misinformation commonly found on social media. Now, a few senators are attempting to hold these companies accountable for algorithms that promote health-related misinformation by doing away with protections found in Section 230. Section 230 has long been used as a shield for social media companies to dodge any liability for what their users are saying on their platforms. Still, with more lockdowns looming due to Americans refusing to get vaccinated, clearly something needs to be done. At this point, that’s all you can really expect from social media companies: lip service and passing the buck. While the onus is certainly on the government to pass laws that promote this kind of action, it would be nice if the tech industry would, just once, take responsibility for their influence in the world and actually do something meaningful about it. We’re not holding our breath though. Representatives from Twitter and YouTube did not respond to the introduction of the new bill in the Senate. Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to do that. For one, giving specific exemptions to Section 230 is complicated at best, as specific organizations and individuals will have to decipher what is and isn’t health-related misinformation. With social media platforms already struggling to combat everyday misinformation, it’s safe to say they don’t have the bandwidth to effectively handle this without accidentally censoring valuable health information. The greater misinformation problem to solve is that the genie is already out of the bottle. COVID misinformation has run rampant over the last year and a half, and the reality is that a large portion of the population is just not going to get it, regardless of how much misinformation you take down. Still, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. While this specific bill might not be the answer, addressing the problematic nature of Section 230, especially under the guise of COVID misinformation, could be the building block they need to make some concrete changes.
