Claire Roberts's Recent LinkedIn Posts

For 30 years, one law has kept the world’s biggest tech platforms virtually untouchable. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act - written in 1996 - declared that platforms cannot be treated as publishers of what their users post. They host it. They don’t own it. So they can’t be sued for it. That legal shield built Silicon Valley as we know it, but it’s starting to crumble. The world is waking up to stories of Meta on trial and the tag line making the news is the idea that they built the world’s largest marketplace for child predators. And now, they need to be held accountable section 230 that has previously been used to protect them is being sidestepped as legal cases are being made against their product - The argument has shifted from “you hosted this content” to “your algorithm found the children, connected the predators, and built the networks” And it isn’t just an accusation - in the case of New Meixco vs Meta, they proved it: - they created a fake account of a 13 yr old girl posting about her first day in 7th grade and she received 7000+ followers, all adult men. That’s the algorithm connecting her to predators. - and worse, Meta saw this activity and rather than intervening it offered her a pro account so she could monitise it. It’s not a new problem either - The lawsuit follows a two-year Guardian investigation, published in 2023, which revealed that the tech giant was struggling to prevent people from using its platforms to traffic children. Is trafficking children something you “struggle with” ??? Is it not something that the moment you realise its happening you do everything you can to stop it?? It sounds like a comment from a board meeting “numbers are up but we’re still struggling with the kiddi trafficking stuff, so…you know… some good, some bad” We’re seeing more and more of these trials now - 40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits, all using the ‘defective product’ tact: this is basically the tobacco playbook, turned on tech! It’s also another example of how our laws need to change at the same speed that the tech is moving - Section 230 was written to protect free expression online, a genuinely important goal, but it was written - before recommendation algorithms existed -before platforms were engineering compulsion. - before we had evidence that Meta was aware of an estimated 500,000 inappropriate interactions with children taking place DAILY on its platforms. The law didn’t anticipate a platform that doesn’t just host content but actively curates it, amplifies it, and routes it toward children. it didnt anticipate a platform that would route childrens content to predators. So the law needs to change. These companies are telling us over and over “our safeguards aren’t perfect, and we can’t be held liable for knowing exactly how imperfect they are” How many trials will it take I wonder…? Are you still using Instagram? ….Are your kids?