Put Protections for Online Groups in NAFTA, Ask Groups of Varied Regulatory Persuasions

Liability protections for third-party online content should be included in the North American Free Trade Agreement, said 55 scholars and groups of various regulatory persuasions in a letter Monday to trade heads of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The internet was an "obscure electronic network" when NAFTA was negotiated and now is an essential part of the economy, said the Center for Democracy & Technology, Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, R Street, TechFreedom and others. They urged that a new agreement include immunity provisions like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online companies from legal action for content on their sites. Immunity provisions make it easy for startups to launch new services, and advance consumers' free speech rights, the letter said. “The legal exposure of Internet businesses raises vitally important trade issues,” blogged Santa Clara Law professor Eric Goldman, who spearheaded the effort and has been critical of congressional legislation aimed at curbing online sex trafficking that would make exceptions to Section 230 protections (see 1801040050). "New rules on cross-border data flows, non-disclosure requirements for source code and algorithms, and highlighting the role of interoperability mechanisms to transfer data across borders" should be part of a new pact, said Software & Information Industry Association Vice President-Public Policy Mark MacCarthy.