CITRIS Policy Lab founding Director Brandie Nonnecke is part of a group of expert technologists that filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to have Section 230’s liability shield apply to claims against interactive computer service providers based on their recommended content.
The brief demonstrates that if recommendations are not shielded by Section 230, providers will be discouraged from using novel algorithms to help users find content. It also explains that such a holding would create strong incentives for providers to limit speech for fear of potential liability.
The coalition that joined the brief includes: the Center for Democracy & Technology; Robin Burke, professor of information science at the University of Colorado Boulder; Matt Cutts, former administrator of the U.S. Digital Service and former distinguished engineer at Google; Dean Eckles, associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he is also affiliated with the Schwarzman College of Computing; Michael Ekstrand, associate professor of computer science at Boise State University; and Jonathan Stray, senior scientist at the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley.