Ruling Against Facebook in Sex Trafficking Case Threatens Key Legal Shield for Social Media Platform
upstart writes:
Facebook can't be sued for what people say on its platform, but it can be for letting sex traffickers get away with using the site as a recruiting tool, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday, opening the door to more lawsuits and setting up a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that could erode a key legal protection for social media companies.
The ruling allows civil lawsuits to proceed that were filed by three victims of sex trafficking against Facebook for allegedly failing to stop child predators from using its messaging services to recruit them.
Facebook had argued that it was not responsible for what users say on its site based on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields social media companies from liability for bad things its users do, like making death threats.
The Texas Supreme Court justices ruled that Facebook's argument did not apply because Congress in 2018 passed exceptions to Section 230 that permit civil lawsuits against media platforms for violations of state and federal human trafficking laws.
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