An introductory primer by Eric Goldman (Santa Clara University School of Law), dated 2022-10-15, on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230), the US intermediary-liability regime that shields websites and online services from liability for third-party content. The primer sets out the pre-Section 230 liability landscape, the statutory change Section 230 introduced, and its role in the architecture of the open-platform Internet.
Summary of argument
Goldman organizes the primer around three structural points.
On pre-Section 230 law, liability for third-party content attached when the disseminator exercised editorial discretion. Common carriers such as telephone providers were not liable, while traditional publishers were. The emergence of the Internet broke this binary, since online services both carried and edited content.
On the statutory change, § 230(c)(1) provides that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." § 230(c)(2) provides good-faith content-moderation immunity, the provision Goldman identifies as the "Good Samaritan" clause.
On the consequences, Goldman argues that Section 230 enabled the modern Internet's open-platform architecture and that understanding its scope is a prerequisite to any policy debate about platform regulation.
Relevance to AI-platform liability
The primer is the doctrinal reference point for several disputes over whether Section 230 extends to AI outputs. In Garcia v. Character Technologies, Inc., the May 2025 ruling rejected categorical Section 230 protection for chatbot outputs, a change in AI-platform liability doctrine for which the primer supplies the background on what the doctrine consisted of. In Raine v. OpenAI, Inc., the wrongful-death theory similarly contests Section 230 protection for AI outputs. In Amazon v. Perplexity AI, Section 230 is implicated in agent-platform liability questions, alongside Norms of Computer Trespass — Orin S. Kerr (Essay, 2022) on the surrounding doctrinal landscape.
The primer also bears on legislation that interacts with Section 230. TAKE IT DOWN Act — Source Summary preserves Section 230 protection while adding platform takedown obligations, illustrating how Section 230 interacts with sector-specific obligations. AI LEAD Act (S. 2937) and Executive Order 14365 — Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI both touch Section 230 questions through preemption. Goldman is one of the academic voices associated with Section 230 commentary (Eric Goldman, planned).
Relationships
- supports: Garcia v. Character Technologies, Inc. (doctrinal anchor), Raine v. OpenAI, Inc., Ai Platform Liability (planned)
- related: Norms of Computer Trespass — Orin S. Kerr (Essay, 2022) (companion doctrinal primer), TAKE IT DOWN Act — Source Summary, AI LEAD Act (S. 2937), Executive Order 14365 — Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI, Eric Goldman (planned)
- instance-of: AI Safety Cases and Frameworks (legal-doctrinal primer)