James Pressley, Head of Corporate and Commercial at Kirwans law firm, explains why things are about to change for online platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Airbnb that have effectively been operating outside the law.
The first online platforms operated in a Wild West environment. The idea was that they were a marketplace only – they simply provided a space within which providers and consumers could meet online to exchange products and information.
This was encouraged by an American law, s.230 Communications Decency Act 1996, which states that “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”. Effectively this meant that an online platform was not responsible for material posted on it by its users. This view was later endorsed in legislation and case law in the UK and Europe.
Facebook and AOL have regularly used the s.230 Communications Decency Act to defend themselves. The online social media platforms and marketplaces flourished, effectively almost outside the law. The internet was free but, like any unregulated space, could also be dangerous.Recently, the tragic case of Molly Russell highlighted the dangers of social media platforms.
Molly took her own life after viewing graphic images and content relating to self-harm and suicide on Instagram. Once she had accessed this content, Instagram’s algorithms operated to push more of it into her feed.
