The 25th Anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Section 230

As the lead staffer for Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) on Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TA96), I often smile when people “correct” me to explain that Section 230 wasn’t part of TA96, but rather part of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). The reality is that Section 230 is contained in Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a title that the framers of TA96 indicated could also be referred to by its “short title,” as the “Communications Decency Act of 1996.” Today, however, I feel people can simply call it what they want. After it became a call-out response at Trump political rallies in 2020, saying “Section 230” now largely suffices since it has become a commonplace term. Section 230 is certainly much in the news and much misunderstood. I offer here a small bit of the legislative history from a former staffer’s perspective on how this provision came to be part of TA96.

[Colin Crowell is Vice President of Global Public Policy and Philanthropy at Twitter. Prior to Twitter, Crowell worked for over two decades for then-Congressman, now Senator Ed Markey (D-MA).]