Despite Long Claiming To Be A Platform And Not A Media Publisher — Including In Front Of The Senate — Facebook Is Now Claiming To Be A Media Publisher In A Lawsuit Filed Against The Social Media Giant By An App Company, Which Described The Claim As “a Complete 180.”
Facebook has publicly denied being a media publisher every time there is an issue with content on its site. The company has long claimed to simply be a platform for their users to utilize and as a result, the social media firm cannot be held accountable for the content posted there. But in a recent lawsuit, the company has claimed the exact opposite.
Social media company’s such as Facebook are also protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which currently grants them legal immunity for content posted by social media users to their supposedly neutral platforms. If Facebook admits to being a publisher, it could lose this immunity.
The Guardian reports that in a recently filed lawsuit, the app startup Six4Three alleges that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg developed a “malicious and fraudulent scheme” to take advantage of Facebook users’ personal data and force other rival companies out of business. In response, Facebook has claimed that their decisions relating to “what not to publish” should be legally protected because the company is a “publisher.” – READ MORE