In Episode 47, Peter Gentala, Senior Legal Counsel at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, joins the Ending Sexploitation podcast to discuss legal accountability for social media platforms that facilitate sexual exploitation.
Peter Gentala, Senior Legal Counsel at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, joins the Ending Sexploitation podcast to discuss the issue of holding social media platforms legally accountable for facilitating sexual exploitation. Gentala addresses both the particular challenges in this space as well as the unprecedented progress that has occurred over the past year.
Gentala explains how American Law has been interpreted as granting internet platforms blanket immunity for third-party content, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230). As such, it has historically been exceptionally difficult to hold social media companies accountable for the role they play in recklessly distributing sexually exploitative content.
However, thanks to the brave voices of survivors and the collective efforts of law firms, advocates, journalists, and more, groundbreaking progress has been made. For example, in the past year class action lawsuits have been filed against Pornhub, Twitter, and Xvideos for distributing abuse videos. The progress these lawsuits have been making through the courts is historic in the way it challenges assumptions of blanket immunity under CDA 230. Judges are speaking out against the overly broad interpretation of CDA 230 immunity and calling for the law to be updated or clarified.
Gentala emphasizes that “we are at an inflection point” and now is the time to make a difference.
Tune into this episode to learn more!
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