Section
230. Protection for private blocking and screening of offensive material
(a)
Findings
The Congress finds the following:
(1)
The rapidly developing array of Internet and
other interactive computer services available to individual Americans
represent an extraordinary advance in the availability of educational
and informational resources to our citizens.
(2)
These services offer users a great degree of
control over the information that they receive, as well as the
potential for even greater control in the future as technology
develops.
(3)
The Internet and other interactive computer
services offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse,
unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for
intellectual activity.
(4)
The Internet and other interactive computer
services have flourished, to the benefit of all Americans, with a
minimum of government regulation.
(5)
Increasingly Americans are relying on interactive
media for a variety of political, educational, cultural, and
entertainment services.
(b)
Policy
It is the policy of the United States—
(1)
to promote the continued development of the
Internet and other interactive computer services and other interactive
media;
(2)
to preserve the vibrant and competitive free
market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive
computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation;
(3)
to encourage the development of technologies
which maximize user control over what information is received by
individuals, families, and schools who use the Internet and other
interactive computer services;
(4)
to remove disincentives for the development and
utilization of blocking and filtering technologies that empower parents
to restrict their children’s access to objectionable or inappropriate
online material; and
(5)
to ensure vigorous enforcement of Federal
criminal laws to deter and punish trafficking in obscenity, stalking,
and harassment by means of computer.
(c)
Protection for “Good Samaritan” blocking and
screening of offensive material
(1)
Treatment of publisher or speaker
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.
(2)
Civil liability
No provider or user of an interactive
computer
service shall be held liable on account of—
(A)
any action voluntarily taken in good faith to
restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or
user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively
violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such
material is constitutionally protected; or
(B)
any action taken to enable or make available to
information content providers or others the technical means to restrict
access to material described in paragraph (A).
(d)
Obligations of interactive computer service
A provider of interactive computer
service shall,
at the time of entering an agreement with a customer for the provision
of interactive computer service and in a manner deemed appropriate by
the provider, notify such customer that parental control protections
(such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are
commercially available that may assist the customer in limiting access
to material that is harmful to minors. Such notice shall identify, or
provide the customer with access to information identifying, current
providers of such protections.
(e)
Effect on other laws
(1)
No effect on federal criminal law
Nothing in this section shall be
construed to
impair the enforcement of section 223
or 231
of this title, chapter 71 (relating to obscenity) or 110 (relating to
sexual exploitation of children) of title 18, or any other Federal
criminal statute.
(2)
No effect on intellectual property law
Nothing in this section shall be
construed to
limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property.
(3)
State law
Nothing in this section shall be
construed to
prevent any State from enforcing any State law that is consistent with
this section. No cause of action may be brought and no liability may be
imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this
section.
(4)
No effect on communications privacy law
Nothing in this section shall be
construed to
limit the application of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of
1986 or any of the amendments made by such Act, or any similar State
law.
(f)
Definitions
As used in this section:
(1)
Internet
The term “Internet” means the
international
computer network of both Federal and non-Federal interoperable packet
switched data networks.
(2)
Interactive computer service
The term “interactive computer service”
means any
information service, system, or access software provider that provides
or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server,
including specifically a service or system that provides access to the
Internet and such systems operated or services offered by libraries or
educational institutions.
(3)
Information content provider
The term “information content provider”
means any
person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the
creation or development of information provided through the Internet or
any other interactive computer service.
(4)
Access software provider
The term “access software provider”
means a
provider of software (including client or server software), or enabling
tools that do any one or more of the following:
(A)
filter, screen, allow, or disallow content;
(B)
pick, choose, analyze, or digest content; or
(C)
transmit, receive, display, forward, cache,
search, subset, organize, reorganize, or translate content.