The SAFE TECH Act Is Anything but Safe

The latest anti-tech legislation in Congress (S.560) would seriously threaten free speech online and creators’ ability to monetize content while also subjecting tech companies to a flood of frivolous or unfair lawsuits.

The bill—dubbed the “Safeguarding Against Fraud, Exploitation, Threats, Extremism and Consumer Harms (SAFE TECH) Act”—comes from Democratic Sens. Mark Warner (Va.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Tim Kaine (Va.), and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.). It has a companion in the House sponsored by Reps. Kathy Castor (D–Fla.) and Mike Levin (D–Calif.).

This year’s SAFE TECH Act is a redux of a bill first introduced in 2021. That version—which Techdirt Editor-in-Chief Mike Masnick called “a dumpster fire of cluelessness”— failed to go anywhere (thank goodness). But now the SAFE TECH Act is back, and it doesn’t appear to be any better this time around.

The SAFE TECH Act is yet another stab at undermining Section 230 of federal communications law. As it stands, Section 230 protects tech platforms—large and small—and their users from civil liability for content created by others. It does not protect against liability for content that a tech entity or user creates, nor does it protect against liability for federal crimes.

Significant Changes to Section 230 

Section 230 has two main sections, one which protects against liability for third-party speech allowed (or overlooked) on a web platform and one which protects against liability for content moderation (that is, blocking certain speech). The first main part of Section 230—sometimes referred to as c(1)—says “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” The second main part—c(2), or the “Good Samaritan clause”—says internet platforms and users won’t be held liable on account of “any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.”

The first change the SAFE TECH Act would make is to say c(1) doesn’t apply when “the provider or user has accepted payment to make the speech available or, in whole or in part, created or funded the creation of the speech.”

This would open up a huge range of tech companies to more liability. Blogging platforms like WordPress and newsletter and podcast distributors like Substack would be vulnerable, as would any social media platform that provides a paid tier level (like Twitter Blue).

So would all sorts of web hosting services—creating huge incentives for providers to cut off web hosting acc