Sponsor
Harriet Hageman
Representative · R-WY
Representative · R-WY
The bill trades away Section 230's broad immunity to increase platform accountability and victims' access to remedies, while risking greater content restrictions, higher costs for startups, reduced free services for consumers, and short-term legal uncertainty.
Users and the public (students, middle-class families, small-business owners) could see increased accountability as platforms lose broad Section 230 immunity, enabling more lawsuits and remedial outcomes against platforms.
Victims of online harms (defamation, harassment) — including students and middle-class families — may have improved chances to obtain legal remedies if platforms' broad immunity sunsets.
Congress would face pressure to clarify and update online liability rules before the immunity sunset, potentially producing clearer legal standards that affect tech workers and small businesses.
Platforms may preemptively restrict user content more aggressively to avoid liability, reducing free expression and access to information for students, middle-class families, and tech workers.
Smaller online businesses and startups (small-business owners, tech workers) could face higher legal and compliance costs, raising barriers to entry and harming innovation.
Consumers (students, middle-class families) may see reduced availability of free services or features as platforms change business models to cover increased legal risk and costs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds a statutory sunset that causes 47 U.S.C. § 230 to expire and have no force or effect on December 31, 2026 unless reenacted.
Official title: To provide a sunset for section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 16, 2025 by Harriet Hageman · Last progress December 16, 2025
Creates a statutory sunset for the federal law commonly known as Section 230 by adding a provision that causes the entire 47 U.S.C. § 230 to expire and have no force or effect after December 31, 2026, unless Congress reenacts or extends it earlier. The bill contains only a short title and that sunset provision and does not itself amend other substantive provisions or set additional deadlines.