SCARS Commentary: On the topic of the Communications Decency Act, Section 230 specifically.
As some of you may know, in 1996 a new law was created that allowed websites (and everything is a website) to display content created by the site visitors. This is called the Communications Decency Act, which contained sections, including Section 230.
Ironically, it was actually intended to protect us from crime (specifically porn) – oops!
But as everyone wanted, website publishers needed a way to allow interaction with their visitors, such as comments, product reviews, and blogs, without being at risk for what they published. This is the Section 230 part of the law. It gave the publishers immunity from lawsuits for anything their users posted or published.
Today, we now know that not only did the CDA Section 230 allow for much of what we know today as the Internet, search engines, social media, Wikipedia, Youtube, Facebook, and so much more. But section 230 also came with unforeseen consequences as deadly as Ebola!
It allowed all of the websites and publishers to establish their own standards that they would follow, such as Facebook’s wonderful community standards, and as long as they wrote them and then made some effort to follow them – what could go wrong, right?
Well basically, everything could go wrong and it did – section 230 allowed the rampant spread of cyber-enabled crimeCyber-enabled Crime A Cyber-enabled crime is one where technology facilitates a criminal to commit a crime against an individual or a business. These are where there is a one to one relationship between the criminal and the victim. Romance scams, email fraud, and many other types of scams are considered cyber-enabled crimes. The technology used can be the Internet, a computer, a phone, or other devices. onto the world’s largest crime wave. Online criminals use this loophole to spread malignant content trapping victims in the tens of millions each year. But Facebook and the other big web publishers do not really look or care because they are immune from liability because of section 230! Seems fair right? Hell, no it does not.
For 8 years SCARS has been trying to get the U.S. Congress to listen to a set of simple modifications to the CDA Section 230 to fix this problem, and make the platforms liable if they ignore reports of crime and abuse on their platforms. But the U.S. Congress has REFUSED to act.
This week, a lawsuit successfully made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Communications Decency Act Section 230 and the implementation of it by the publishers are directly responsible for terrorist acts. SCARS believes they are right. But the Justices of the Supreme Court will have to decide the matter, and either strikes down Section 230 or let it stand.
But here’s the problem.
If the Supreme Court strikes down the law, then ALL user content may have to be turned off. All commenting, all reviews, all shared blogs, all search content, all YouTube videos, and all social media. All platforms may be forced to scale back and allow only approved content on their platforms.
Now in reality, would that be the end of the world? No, it would not. We would simply go back to the world of 1994. And have the benefit that Congress would have to pass a new law quickly to address these issues.
But as we have seen time and time again, when legislatures are rushing they tend to pass bad laws, so we might end up with something much worse. This is a devil’s dilemma.
The status quo harms most of the world and has created a multi-trillion-dollar industry in transglobal organized crime but it has also created a multi-trillion-dollar internet industry. Will we be throwing the baby out with the bath water?
The Case At Hand
According to Time Magazine
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments of a case that has the potential to transform the internet—whether tech companies can be held liable for the content on their platforms.
But if the initial rounds of questioning were any indication, it does not seem likely that the court is ready to disrupt the status quo of Section 230, which shields platforms like YouTube and Facebook from lawsuits over the content they host. Judges on both sides of the ideological aisle expressed skepticism of the plaintiff’s arguments, and suggested several times that reform should be left to Congress. While the Supreme Court may yet upend Section 230 in the future, it seems unlikely Justices will do so through this case. That means the activists demanding the Big Tech reform will likely have to continue fighting an uphill battle.
The case in question is Gonzalez v. Google, which was filed by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old who was killed by an ISIS gunman in Paris in 2015 as part of a series of attacks that killed 130 people.
Gonzalez’s parents and the families of other deceased victims argue that YouTube played a role in the recruitment of ISIS members who participated in the attack. They argue that because YouTube suggests content to users based on their views, it pushed those susceptible to ISIS propaganda towards joining the group. And if YouTube played a role in recruitment, that would place Alphabet, which owns YouTube, in violation of U.S. laws about aiding and abetting acts of terrorism, the lawsuit argues.
Alphabet (the parent company of Google) argues it is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which shields tech companies from being sued over user-generated content. The company contends that Section 230 is an essential part of the company’s ability to provide useful and safe content. That stance has been supported by virtually every major tech company, from Yelp to Reddit to Meta to Tinder.
This Brings Us To The Present Moment
The Supreme Court will decide this issue on the merits of the individual case. But either way, it creates massive problems.
If the Big Tech industry giants are not held liable, nothing will change and it may make it even harder for cases like this to reach the Supreme Court again. It may take all pressure off of Congress, assuring their inaction to resolve these issues.
If the law is overturned?
But if the Supreme Court overturns the law or at least Section 230 of the law, then the scramble begins. There could be massive lawsuits over anything and everything online. The Big Tech giants may flip the switch and turn off massive amounts of content to save themselves – we actually have seen this before with the case against MySpace over a decade ago. In that case, MySpace ended up deleting huge amounts of content to comply with a case brought against them by the Federal Trade Commission, and the other leading platform in those days “XANGA”, just shut down.
We all need to be paying close attention to this case. It could go either way, and either way is disastrous.
For us, it is simple, if the law is overturned, we turn off commenting, but we lose our social media. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, and all the rest will have to turn off all content. It does not mean Google stops, but it has to flush everything and start re-indexing what is left.
But if the law is upheld, will we ever see reforms?
Our experience is that people are great at complaining, but rarely make the effort to create real change – they expect someone else to do it. Those (like SCARS) cannot out-lobby Big Tech in Congress the way things are right now. Advocacy is expensive and few are willing to donate to these causes.
You can make a difference. But we will have to wait and see what happens before we know what action needs to be taken.
Tim McGuinness, Ph.D.
Managing Director,
Society of Citizens Against Relationship ScamsSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims.
Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS. Inc. [SCARS]
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SCARS provides the leading Support & Recovery program for relationship scamRelationship Scam A Relationship Scam is a one-to-one criminal act that involves a trust relationship and uses deception & manipulation to get a victim to give to the criminal something of value, such as money! Click here to learn more: What Is A Relationship Scam? victims – completely FREE!
Our managed peer supportPeer support Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters and can take a number of forms such as peer mentoring, reflective listening (reflecting content and/or feelings), or in a support group. Peer support is also used to refer to initiatives where colleagues, members of self-help organizations and others meet, in person or online, to give each other connection and support on a reciprocal basis. Peer support is distinct from other forms of social support in that the source of support is a peer, a person who is similar in fundamental ways to the recipient of the support; their relationship is one of equality. A peer is in a position to offer support by virtue of relevant experience: he or she has "been there, done that" and can relate to others who are now in a similar situation. Trained peer support workers such as SCARS Volunteers receive special training and may be required to obtain Continuing Education Units, similar to clinical staff. Some other trained peer support workers may also be law-enforcement personnel and firefighters as well as emergency medical responders. groups allow victims to talk to other survivorsSurvivor A Scam Survivor is a victim who has been able to fully accept the reality of their situation. That they were the victim of a crime and are not to blame. They are working on their emotional recovery and reduction of any trauma either on their own, through a qualified support organization, or through counseling or therapy. And has done their duty and reported the crime to their local police, national police, and on Anyscam.com and recover in the most experienced environment possible, for as long as they need. Recovery takes as long as it takes – we put no limits on our support!
SCARS is the most trusted support & education provider in the world. Our team is certified in trauma-informedTrauma-Informed Trauma-informed care shifts the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” A trauma-informed approach to care acknowledges that health care needs to have a complete picture of a patient’s life situation — past and present — in order to provide effective care services with a healing orientation. Adopting trauma-informed practices can potentially improve patient engagement, treatment adherence, and health outcomes. care, grief counselingCounseling Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes. A mental health counselor (MHC), or counselor, is a person who works with individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health. Such persons may help individuals deal with issues associated with addiction and substance abuse; family, parenting, and marital problems; stress management; self-esteem; and aging. They may also work with "Social Workers", "Psychiatrists", and "Psychologists". SCARS does not provide mental health counseling., and so much more!
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We also offer separate support groupsSupport Groups In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic, such as romance scams. Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping strategies, to feel more empowered and for a sense of community. The help may take the form of providing and evaluating relevant information, relating personal experiences, listening to and accepting others' experiences, providing sympathetic understanding and establishing social networks. A support group may also work to inform the public or engage in advocacy. They can be supervised or not. SCARS support groups are moderated by the SCARS Team and or volunteers. for family & friends too.
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This program is designed to help scamScam A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime - is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost. victims struggling to recover on their own and for those who want to understand the overall process. You can be using other resources, such as traumaTrauma Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people. Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety or other emotional shocks, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can result in trauma, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. It’s not the objective circumstances that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized. Trauma requires treatment, either through counseling or therapy or through trauma-oriented support programs, such as those offered by SCARS. counseling or therapy, qualified support groups, or completely independent – on your own!
The SCARS Steps program is a complete program and is provided for the purpose of helping scam victims to overcome this experience. Throughout this SCARS Steps Program, we speak about issues and challenges that a victim may have and help guide them through their recovery. But each person is different and it is important to understand your own reasons for being vulnerable to being scammed.
After the trauma of being scammed, you need to take steps to recover and move on. This may be an alternative to counseling in the short term, but we still encourage you to seek out professional help & support. Throughout this SCARS Steps Program, we speak about issues, challenges, defects, or problems that a victim may have in a generalized way.
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This SCARS Publishing book represents a complete guide to help the families and friends understand how these scamsScams A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime - is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost. work and how to help the victim.
The SCARS Slate Book should be purchased by family and friends to better understand what happened to the victim and the traumatic impact on them. But it can also be shared by the victim so that they do not have to explain to family and friends about the scam. This publication is to help others to help Scam Victims to make it through this traumatic experience and recover.
Each person is different and it is important to understand how relationship scamsRelationship Scam A Relationship Scam is a one-to-one criminal act that involves a trust relationship and uses deception & manipulation to get a victim to give to the criminal something of value, such as money! Click here to learn more: What Is A Relationship Scam? work and why people are vulnerable; to being scammed, how they were lured in, then groomed and manipulated. This understanding is essential in helping them through the process of ending the scam and then on to recovery. The SCARS Slate Book will provide the information necessary to help support a victim through this process.
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Helps you get and stay organized. This publication is to help Scam Victims organize their crime information. Complete this information before reporting to the police then bring this book with you
Before or after reporting to the police the RED BOOK gives you a dedicated tool to record all the essential facts of this crime. The Victim, the Scammers, the Money, and your Police interactions. Everything that really matters can be easily recorded for your immediate use and for the future!
As we have seen, money recovery/repayment programs can become available years after the scam ends and you need to keep all the details of this crime in case it is needed. We have also seen scammers being extradited to the U.S. and other countries, this will help in the event you testify or give statements, Additionally, this helps you have your information ready to qualify for victims’ benefits, compensation, or aid.
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By the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
A Worldwide Crime Victims Assistance & Crime Prevention Nonprofit Organization Headquartered In Miami Florida USA & Monterrey NL Mexico, with Partners In More Than 60 Countries
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To see ScammerScammer A Scammer or Fraudster is someone that engages in deception to obtain money or achieve another objective. They are criminals that attempt to deceive a victim into sending more or performing some other activity that benefits the scammer. Photos visit www.ScammerPhotos.com
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