Facebook's Zuckerberg lays out steps to reform Internet rules

WASHINGTON - Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg laid out steps on Wednesday (March 24) to reform Internet rules, saying that companies should have immunity from liability only if they follow best practices for removing damaging material from their platforms.

In testimony prepared for a hearing before House Energy and Commerce sub-committees on Thursday (March 25), Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged the calls for changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which gives companies like Facebook immunity from liability for content posted by users.

Facebook, along with Twitter and Alphabet's Google - whose CEOs Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai also testify on Thursday - has been under fire from Democrats for misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, some of it posted by foreign actors.

"We believe Congress should consider making platforms' intermediary liability protection for certain types of unlawful content conditional on companies' ability to meet best practices to combat the spread of this content," he said in prepared testimony.

"Platforms should not be held liable if a particular piece of content evades its detection -that would be impractical for platforms with billions of posts per day," he wrote.

ALSO READ: Watchdog sues Facebook over attacks on media and virus posts