Merchandise legal responsibility claims have lengthy centered on bodily merchandise. As know-how advances and software program and social media play an ever-expanding position in our lives, novel merchandise legal responsibility theories have emerged focusing on social media platforms, software program builders, and purveyors of recent applied sciences on the grounds that these tech corporations are “product sellers” and their communication platforms are “merchandise.” Nonetheless, these novel claims check the boundaries of merchandise legal responsibility legislation and run afoul of fundamental merchandise legal responsibility rules, as tech corporations should not product sellers and the digital communication platforms they provide should not merchandise throughout the that means of merchandise legal responsibility legislation.
Part 230 Immunity
Tech corporations get pleasure from broad safety from legal responsibility for on-line content material posted to their social media platforms and digital communication boards below Part 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Part 230 immunizes these platforms and boards from legal responsibility for the content material of their customers’ posts. As most claims arising from the alleged misuse of social media or posting of probably tortious content material on-line concern the content material itself, Part 230 has persistently been utilized to guard tech corporations from legal responsibility for claims based mostly on the content material of social media and digital communication boards. Certainly, Part 230 has been used efficiently as a protect in opposition to legal responsibility since earlier than lots of in the present day’s largest tech corporations have been even based.