Supreme Court declines to review scope of Section 230 liability shield for internet companies

Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away a dispute that called for an examination of the scope of a federal law  known as Section 230 that provides a powerful legal shield for internet companies and has faced growing scrutiny in recent years.

Enacted in 1996, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes companies from civil liability stemming from content posted to their sites by third parties. Defenders of the measure have said it has allowed the internet to flourish and paved the way for online innovation. But critics have said Section 230 has been interpreted too broadly to allow social media platforms and other sites to escape accountability, and some of the justices themselves have urged the Supreme Court to address lower courts' interpretation of the law.

The court did consider the scope of Section 230 for the first time last year, in a case that involved whether the law's protections extended to a site's targeted recommendations for users. The justices, though, sidestepped a ruling in the case involving Google that could've limited the legal shield.