Edited: 3 sources added, 5 sections added
Show changesHide changes
BeforeAnti-censorship advocacy in the digital era traces its origins to the mid-1990s, when early internet users and civil liberties organizations mobilized against the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Over the following decades, the movement expanded from opposing government regulation of online content to engaging with platform-level content moderation policies, Section 230 debates, and recurring disputes over deplatforming actions. Participants range from established digital rights organizations to grassroots online campaigns, united by a shared focus on opposing perceived restrictions on …
AfterAnti-censorship advocacy in the digital era begins with a statute and a case, and its subsequent history is best told as a shift in what it is arguing against. ## The 1996 statute and the 1997 case Congress enacted the Communications Decency Act in 1996 as part of the Telecommunications Act. In *Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union*, decided June 26, 1997, the Supreme Court struck down its anti-indecency provisions. That is where the `founded` date on this page comes from: the movement in its modern form organized around that challenge. ## Section 230, and what it actually says The …