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On Section 230 Anniversary, Coalition Warns Against AI Law Preemption Two dozen groups urge Senate not to create a new legal shield for tech As the 30th anniversary of Section 230 approaches, a coalition of over two dozen organizations today released a letter urging the Senate to reject proposals that would preempt state AI laws, creating another legal shield for Big Tech. This week, lawmakers and celebrities are marking the Section 230 anniversary with events on the Hill calling for reforms to the law and underscoring its harmful impact on children, families, and other victims barred from seeking redress over harmful social media products. At the same time, members of Congress are debating legislation that would preempt state AI laws, undoing safeguards meant to protect consumers and victims in the AI era. Read the full coalition letter to the Senate. From today’s letter: “Across the country, states are responding to real and documented harms by enacting targeted, commonsense protections addressing issues such as workplace surveillance, deepfake abuse, and risks to children and consumers. These laws reflect democratic accountability and serve as critical guardrails in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.” “Broad federal preemption would sweep these protections aside and, in practice, recreate the same dynamics that followed the passage of Section 230. While Section 230 played an important role in the early internet, its expansive liability shield also enabled platforms to evade responsibility for foreseeable harms, leaving families, workers, and communities with little recourse. Extending similar immunity to AI companies would repeat this mistake at a far larger scale.” The coalition letter to the Senate was led by Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) and the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), and was signed by 28 organizations, including Common Sense Media, Issue One, Young People’s Alliance, Encode AI, and Fairplay. Late last year, ARI President Brad Carson published an op-ed in Tech Policy Press calling AI law preemption a “new Section 230,” critiquing the proposal for letting tech off the hook again in the face of new consumer harms. ### Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest, focused on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at ARI.us.
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