Nancy Kim, OpEd on Holding Facebook Accountable

People familiar with the blog know Nancy Kim as one of our contributing editors, author of books and books and books, including her recent novel, as well as law review articles too numerous to list.  Now, Nancy has also published an OpEd in the L.A. Times, showing that she is now a well-rounded public intellectual.

As Nancy explains, one obstacle to holding Facebook accountable for the well-documented harms it causes is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.   However, Section 230 should not shield Facebook from liability for the intentional harms it causes or for the misleading ways in which it markets its platforms.  Pointing out that Facebook is addictive by design and noting its suppression of its own research indicating the psychological harms it inflicts on its users, Nancy argues:

Facebook’s products and what the company says about them should be fair game for product liability lawsuits. People who suffer physical or emotional harm from those products — especially teenagers and young adults who are particularly vulnerable to the site’s features — should be able to sue the company without getting bogged down by Section 230.

Part of the solution would be a legislative fix, clarifying the limited scope of Section 230 protections for platforms like Facebook.  However, we should not limit ourselves to playing Waiting for Godot game with our feckless legislators.  For now, lawsuits might be the best way to shed some sunlight on Facebook’s practices.