The Internet Will Not Break: Denying Bad Samaritans Sec. 230 Immunity
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THE INTERNET WILL NOT BREAK:
DENYING BAD SAMARITANS
§ 230 IMMUNITY
Danielle Keats Citron * and Benjamin Wittes**
INTRODUCTION
The social media site Omegle sports the jaunty slogan, Talk to
strangers!' The site's front page announces that it is a great way to meet
new friends. When you use Omegle, we pick someone else at random and
let you talk one-on-one.2
Omegle is not exactly a social media site for sexual predators, but it is fair
to say that a social network designed for the benefit of the predator
community would look a lot like Omegle. The site itself seems to understand
this. The opening paragraph-the same one in which the site proclaims itself
a great way to meet new friends-warns that [p]redators have been known
to use Omegle, so please be careful.3 The site's legal disclaimer, also on its
front page, specifically warns: Understand that human behavior is
fundamentally uncontrollable, that the people you encounter on Omegle may
not behave appropriately, and that they are solely responsible for their own
behavior. Use Omegle at your own peril.4 As to Omegle's video chat, the
site warns: Omegle video chat is moderated. However, moderation is not
perfect. You may still encounter people who misbehave. They are solely
responsible for their own behavior.5
* Morton & Sophia Macht Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King
Carey School of Law. We are grateful to Antigone Davis, Mary Anne Franks, Carrie
Goldberg, Eric Goldman, Brittan Heller, Daphne Keller, Kate Klonick, Jonathan Mayer, and
Alexander Tsesis for their feedback as well as to the participants in the Hoover Institution's
conference on the power of platforms and the Department of Justice, Computer Crimes and
Intellectual Property Cyber Crime section's symposium. We are grateful to Susan McCarty
and Jennifer Smith for their research help. Much thanks to the Fordham Law Review and
Alexander Tsesis for hosting the Terrorist Incitement on the Internet symposium and including
us in this volume. Serious thanks to our editors Deema Nagib and Julia MacAllister for their
helpful comments. For an overview of the Fordham Law Review symposium, see Alexander
Tsesis, Foreword: Terrorist Incitement on the Internet, 86 FORDHAM L. REv. 367 (2017).
** Editor-in-Chief, Lawfare; Senior Fellow in Governance Studies, Brookings Institution.
1. OMEGLE, http://www.omegle.com/ [https://perma.cc/4UQB-97XY] (last visited Oct.
16, 2017).
2. Id.
3. Id.
4. Id. (emphasis added).
5. Id. (emphasis added).
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The Internet Will Not Break: Denying Bad Samaritans Sec. 230 Immunity
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