Re:Google CEO Sundar Pichai to Meet with Top GOP Lawmakers
by twtw on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @04:19AM
(#18073867)
> Google could in principle make its results insanely left-leaning and the first amendment should protect them
This is a far too simplistic and superficial analysis. Yes, Google could decide to position themselves as a publisher and claim the corresponding right to editorialize their content, but this would mean accepting a publishers' responsibility for all of the content. Historically, Google and others have been immune as a result of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields them from responsibility for libel, defamation, threats, falsehoods, child porn, fair housing violations, etc.
They could choose to become a publisher in the eye of the law, but then they would have to play by the rules of a publisher. They can't simultaneously be protected as a publisher by freedom of the press and claim immunity as not a publisher.
This is a far too simplistic and superficial analysis. Yes, Google could decide to position themselves as a publisher and claim the corresponding right to editorialize their content, but this would mean accepting a publishers' responsibility for all of the content. Historically, Google and others have been immune as a result of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields them from responsibility for libel, defamation, threats, falsehoods, child porn, fair housing violations, etc.
They could choose to become a publisher in the eye of the law, but then they would have to play by the rules of a publisher. They can't simultaneously be protected as a publisher by freedom of the press and claim immunity as not a publisher.