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A 14-year-old in Tucson finds a fake account using her school photo and her name, posting mean jokes about her. Her first question is who is responsible. Her second is how to make it disappear. A federal law called Section 230 answers part of the first question, and it shapes the answer to the second.
What Section 230 actually says
Section 230 is part of Title 47 of the U.S. Code. Its key sentence says that no provider or user of an 'interactive computer service' (a website, app, or platform where people post things) shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of information that someone else provided. In plain words: if a classmate posts something about you on an app, the app usually cannot be sued as if it wrote the post.
The person who made the post gets no such shield. The law protects the platform, not the poster.
Section 230 also protects platforms that remove material in good faith because they consider it harassing or otherwise objectionable, even if the post would be legal speech. That is why platforms can take down content under their own rules without waiting for a court.
What it does not block
Section 230 says it does not impair the enforcement of federal criminal law, and it names the federal laws against sexual exploitation of children. A sexual image of someone under 18 is a crime to share, and Section 230 does not change that.
In 2023, in Gonzalez v. Google, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked whether Section 230 protects a platform's recommendation system. The Court declined to decide that question and sent the case back to a lower court. So the outer limits of Section 230 are still being argued. The core rule above has not changed.
The 48-hour rule for intimate images
The TAKE IT DOWN Act became federal law (Public Law 119-12) on May 19, 2025. It covers intimate images, including fake ones made with AI, that were posted without the person's consent. It gave covered platforms one year, until May 2026, to set up a way for you to ask for removal.
Once a platform gets a valid request, it must remove the image as soon as possible and no later than 48 hours, and make reasonable efforts to remove known identical copies. The Federal Trade Commission (the federal agency that polices unfair business practices) enforces it.
What to do, in order
First, save proof: a screenshot that shows the account name, the date, and the web address. Do this before you report, because the post may vanish. If the content is a sexual image of you, do not screenshot or forward it; write down the link instead and tell an adult.
Second, report it through the platform's own tool. Pick the closest category, such as impersonation or harassment. For an intimate image, use the platform's TAKE IT DOWN request. The law says your request must be in writing and include your signature (an electronic one counts), enough information to find the image, a short statement that you believe it was posted without consent, and a way to contact you. A parent or other authorized person may send it for you.
Third, tell a trusted adult or your school. If the poster is a classmate, the school may be able to act on its own rules. If there are threats, the police are the right call.
请记住
- Section 230 usually protects the app from lawsuits over a user's post, but it does not protect the person who posted it.
- Platforms are free to remove harassing content under their own rules, so the report button is often the fastest tool.
- Under the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a platform must remove a nonconsensual intimate image within 48 hours of a valid request.
- Save a screenshot with the date and link before reporting, except for sexual images, which you should never copy or forward.
资料来源
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