First amendment protection for online platforms

The United States is home to some of the largest online platforms in the world, in part due to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 provides platforms with extraordinarily broad immunity from lawsuits arising from user content. The statute is under unprecedented scrutiny, and Congress already has amended the statute to weaken its protections. This Article examines the First Amendment protections that would remain for online platforms if Congress were to entirely eliminate Section 230. After reviewing pre-Internet cases involving offline distributors such as bookstores and newsstands, this Article concludes that although the First Amendment would offer some protections to platforms, these protections would be limited and likely would require platforms to significantly alter their operations and business models.