Nancy Pelosi Seeks To Remove Legal Protections For Online Content

The U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seeking to remove legal protections for internet firms with regards to protecting their online content as part of the revised USMCA deal with Canada and Mexico, according to The Wall Street Journal.

What Happened

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pushed to drop legal protections for online content against the tech companies’ wishes.

“There are concerns in the House about enshrining the increasingly controversial…liability shield in our trade agreements, particularly at a time when Congress is considering whether changes need to be made in U.S. law,” said a spokesman for Nancy, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Why It Matters

Technology companies have been trying to ensure the inclusion of the immunity language in the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) for long. They argue that it would help internet companies get legal protection for their online content when doing business in Canada and Mexico as part of the USMCA deal.

Failing to include these protections – which have been a part of U.S. law for two decades – in trade agreements would negatively impact the countless small businesses and entrepreneurs that use online platforms to export and advertise their businesses,” said Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association trade group last month.

But the inclusion of the immunity language in the trade-pact could make it more difficult for Congress to remove the current federal online protections for internet firms in the future, said some lawmakers, according to Wall Street Journal.

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