Establishing Legal Incentives to Hold Big Tech Accountable

In the 21st century, Big Tech has mastered the same tactics Big Tobacco once used to protect its profits — deny harm, deflect blame, and delay accountability. What began as a handful of internet startups has evolved into a global cartel of data barons whose influence reaches deeper into American life than any industry before it. Their platforms shape elections, warp childhoods, and quietly rewire public discourse, while hiding behind legal shields and multimillion-dollar lobbying campaigns that outspend most governments.

Despite bipartisan outrage, even the most promising efforts to rein in this power have repeatedly collapsed under pressure. Promising reforms, from privacy protections and youth safety, routinely collapse against the same obstacle: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 statute increasingly stretched beyond its purpose and recognition. What was once intended as a narrow shield for fledgling internet forums has become a sweeping immunity doctrine that blocks lawsuits before discovery, robbing American families of their day in court and insulating some of the most powerful corporations in the world from meaningful accountability.