Sen Ron Wyden: Uber should be as unfettered as Facebook

A Q&A with Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Back in 1996, then-Reps Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Christopher Cox (R-CA) added 26 words to the Communications Decency Act that have, in the 18 years that followed, perhaps done more than any other law to shape how the Internet has evolved in the United States. Called Section 230, the provision said that Web sites that host users' writings, videos, and more aren't held liable as publishers of that content. That obscure provision is widely credited with allowing the Internet economy and online communications to flourish.

Now, a new generation of Internet-powered yet offline companies such as Airbnb, Aereo and Uber is invoking the spirit of Section 230 to argue that, as mere platforms for the activities of users, they should have the same operational freedom enjoyed by first-generation Internet companies. The car-hailing service Uber has argued that it simply uses the Internet to pair drivers and riders. Are these new online platforms stretching the spirit of Section 230 too far? Or are regulators and the courts failing to see its relevance in an age when what the law calls an "interactive computer service" isn't as clear-cut as it once was?

“One of the things that's been learned over this 20-year odyssey is that you should not try to force old legal regulatory or tax regimes on fundamentally new innovations," Sen Wyden said. "That does not mean that there should be no regulation at all. But all too often the machinery of government has been used to protect old business models against innovation. That is what I have tried resolutely to push back against.”