Frank LoMonte Authors Book Chapter on Section 230 and Social Media Companies

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, is the author of “The Legal Landscape: The First Amendment, Section 230 and Online Liability,” a chapter in the book Democracy in the Disinformation Age published in May 2021.

In the chapter, LoMonte looks at the ways social media companies have benefited from strategically walking the line between “publisher” status, when the First Amendment protection afforded to publishers is advantageous to them, versus “common carrier” status, which insulates them against liability.

According to LoMonte, “This chapter investigates and critiques leading theories of responsibility, including the concept of social media companies as ‘information fiduciaries’ with heightened professional responsibilities to protect the best interests of their users, concluding that no preexisting concept of tort liability is a suitable fit for the way that user-generated information is transmitted in contemporary society, and that any notion of governmentally enforced ‘information quality policing’ portends a proverbial ‘cure’ that could kill the patient as rapidly as the illness.”