Legislation announced on Thursday aimed at curbing the spread of online child sexual abuse imagery would take the extraordinary step of removing legal protections for tech companies that fail to police the illegal content. A separate, international initiative that was also announced takes a softer approach, getting the industry to voluntarily embrace standards for combating the material.
The two measures come as tech companies continue to detect an explosion of abusive content on their platforms, and amid complaints that neither Congress nor the companies have been aggressive enough in stopping its spread. An investigation last year by The New York Times found that many companies knew about the problem but failed to quash it, despite having the tools to do so, and that the federal government had not been adequately enforcing a previous law meant to stem the abuse.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/us/child-sexual-abuse-legislation.html