Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Social Media Companies in Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzales v. Google LLC in Two Unanimous Decisions
Summary
On May 18, 2023, the Supreme Court sidestepped the question of Section 230 liability, ruling in favor of social media companies in Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzales v. Google LLC in two unanimous decisions. The Supreme Court “decline[d] to address the application of Section 230.” Instead, the Court considered algorithms in the context of aiding and abetting under the Section 2333(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, noting that “algorithms appear agnostic to the nature of the content” and that any harmful match of content to a user “more likely to view that content” does not “convert passive assistance into active abetting.” These decisions do not directly address the question of whether Section 230 protections would extend to, e.g., content selected or produced by generative AI models. However, if the court had explicitly ruled that Section 230 protections do not extend to, e.g., algorithmically generated recommendations or content, it would likely have weakened the argument that Section 230 protections apply to generative AI content. Notably, many lawmakers and industry representatives, along with Justice Gorsuch in oral arguments, have expressed skepticism that Section 230 would apply to AI.
