Ben Sperry Quoted in Fast Company on Section 230, Algorithms, and the Next Phase of Platform Liability
Ben Sperry, ICLE Senior Scholar for Innovation Policy, was quoted in a Fast Company article on recent court rulings challenging Section 230 and how platform design, particularly algorithms, may expose social media companies to new liability. Read the full article here.
“Public debate about social media and youth mental health focuses almost exclusively on potential harms,” wrote the International Center for Law & Economics’ Ben Sperry and Sabrina Pekarovic in a recent essay, arguing that this emphasis downplays the ways platforms can enable self-expression and connect teens to broader communities. They add that treating all teenagers as equally vulnerable oversimplifies the issue and isn’t supported by the evidence. “Blanket bans assume that all teenagers face similar risks and should be treated alike,” they wrote. “The evidence suggests otherwise.”