Can Social Media Platforms Be Held Liable for User Speech?

About this episode

Richard Epstein discusses the legal responsibilities of social media platforms regarding user speech and the implications of current laws.

Can social media companies be held legally responsible for the harms caused by their users? Richard Epstein examines the surge of lawsuits targeting social media platforms, particularly claims tied to speech, adolescent harm, and platform design. Epstein explains why traditional tort law places responsibility on the individual wrongdoer rather than intermediaries, how Section 230 is meant to shield platforms from derivative liability, and why efforts to carve out “bad faith” or promotion-based exceptions risk collapsing those protections altogether. He also explores the high costs and perverse incentives of jury-driven liability, the limits of causation in complex social harms, and a deeper concern often overlooked: government pressure on platforms that threatens free speech more than platform misconduct itself.

People in this episode

Guest: Richard Epstein

Topics covered

• social media liability
• tort law
• free speech
• adolescent harm
• platform design
• government pressure

Keywords

• social media
• liability
• tort law
• Section 230
• free speech
• adolescent harm
• platform design

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, social media companies, Section 230

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