30 of the Communications Decency Act: How ISPs and Users are Legally Exempted from Offensive Materials

In 1996 the U.S. Congress passed into law the Communications Decency Act (CDA) as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The overall goal of the CDA was to encourage the growth of the Internet with minimal federal government restrictions. Section 230 of the law criminalizes any offensive content that is posted on an “interactive computer service” (Communications Decency Act U.S.C 47§23