Hi David and Patrik
We're closely watching developments around SESTA. As we explain on the public
policy portal <https://policy.wikimedia.org/policy-landing/liability/>, we
strongly support intermediary liability protections, such as CDA 230, which
are of existential importance to community driven platforms like Wikipedia.
We rely on such rules to ensure we can continue to be a neutral host of
content that can stay away from editorial decisions. In other words, the
rules allow us to defer to community consensus on editorial decisions. The
SESTA bill is problematic because it is written too broadly, as the EFF
describes
<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/stop-sesta-amendments-federal-criminal-sex-trafficking-law-sweep-too-broadly>,
and would open up states to write more laws that affect website hosts.
On the EFF's campaign page <https://stopsesta.org/>, Katherine Maher
briefly explains our views on CDA 230. We are in conversations with several
advocacy groups who are focusing on the SESTA bill and have submitted a
letter to the Senate in which we explain our concerns. We shared an update
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/publicpolicy/2017-September/001691.html>
about that with the public policy mailing list. We invite you to discuss
the issue with other Wikimedians on that list, if you'd like. Please join
the list <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/publicpolicy> if
you'd like to receive further updates and join the conversation.
Best,
Jan
==
Jan Gerlach
Public Policy Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org
On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 1:34 PM Patrik Zill <patrik(a)pobox.com> wrote:
There is a Katherine Maher quote prominently featured
on <
https://stopsesta.org/#quotes>gt;.
I'd be interested in what exactly the problem is for the Foundation,
though. The EFF leaves aside that question at least in the blog post that
David referred to, which is instead focussed entirely on some exception to
the exception that allegedly doesn't apply. What it doesn't talk about is
why and when - in the cases at issue here - a hosting provider like the
Wikimedia Foundation needs to rely on 47 U.S.C. § 230 in first place. It's
not so obvious (at least not to someone legally trained outside the U.S.)
that you would attract criminal liability for somehow being involved in
"Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion" (18 U.S.C.
§ 1591(e)) or otherwise get into conflict with provisions relating to sex
trafficking by hosting an open web encyclopedia that may be abused in some
way (how?) by some random third party. Naturally, laws don't penalize all
conduct remotely linkable to a criminal act - there's always some kind of
threshold, implicit or explicit, and I'd be curious as to where/what for
specifically the Wikimedia Foundation needs a section 230 defense in this
area.
I believe if you want to communicate your position effectively, you (that
is, the Wikimedia Foundation) should produce one or two example scenarios
and then contrast your liability analysis under the present legislative
framework with that under the proposed new regime, so an interested
observer can follow along the relevant provisions and get an idea of where
exactly we'd reach the point where the proposed changes would cause the
Foundation extra troubles. If you've already done that, all the better,
and, like David, I would appreciate a pointer :).
Patrik
On 7 September 2017 at 21:13, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/stop-sesta-congress-do
esnt-understand-how-section-230-works
What's our position/analysis on this?
- d.
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