US, Europe threaten tech industry's cherished legal 'shield'

In the US and European Union, a series of two-decade-old legal provisions dating to the web’s early days allow internet companies to host content posted by users without being legally responsible for it. Thanks to that immunity, US companies have built massive profit engines around material such as Facebook posts, Instagram photos and YouTube videos, without having to screen them ahead of time. But now lawmakers and regulators in the US and European Union are starting to chip away at those protections, driven by growing concern about hoaxes, hate speech and other online bad behavior.

In April, President Donald Trump signed a law holding online companies liable for "knowingly" hosting content that enables sex trafficking. Both Democratic and Republican Reps are talking about carving out a similar exception for illegal opioid sales. In Brussels, meanwhile, the European Commission recently introduced a bill that would require sites like Facebook to take down terrorist content — Islamic State videos, for example — within an hour of being flagged by authorities, or face still-unspecified penalties. The move follows updates to EU copyright and audiovisual media laws that require platforms like YouTube and Amazon to more actively monitor for violations, including online copyright infringements and inappropriate ad placements.