Big Tech Immunity Explained: Law Professor Adam Candeub on How to Rein In Section 230 Abuse
American Thought Leaders
The Epoch Times
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Who is raising children? It’s not really parents, it’s not teachers, it’s not coaches or clergymen. It’s Twitter influencers. They’re the ones that have the ears and souls of our children.”
I sit down with Adam Candeub, professor of law at Michigan State University and a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America. Candeub served as acting deputy and then acting assistant secretary of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) during Trump’s presidency. He was outspoken in his criticism of what he sees as the abuse and expansion of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Law—a federal provision that grants social media companies protection from liability.
“This rather limited protection that sort-of mimicked the telephone, the telegraph, and we’ve had for hundreds of years and we couldn’t really survive without, has morphed into a protection of the platforms for anything they do,” Candeub says.
Candeub currently advocates for the “common carrier” approach to social media, and is involved in a number of major First Amendment cases, both at the state and federal level, which will likely shape the future of Big Tech’s impact on our society.
“We have given power to these agencies—the gobbledygook alphabet soup of security agencies—that are not really accountable to anybody. And like any other agency, they tend to be co-opted by special interests,” says Candeub.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Who is raising children? It's not really parents, it's not teachers, it's not coaches, |
| 0:03.6 | a clergyman. It's Twitter influencers. They're the ones that have the ears and |
| 0:08.1 | souls of our children. Today, sit down with law professor Adam Kandu. For years, |
| 0:13.1 | Kandu has been immersed in First Amendment law and advocates for the common carrier approach |
| 0:18.3 | in dealing with Section 230, the federal provision that grants social media companies |
| 0:22.5 | protections from liability. This rather limited protection that sort of mimicked the |
| 0:27.4 | telephones and telegraphs has morphed into a protection of the platforms for anything they do. |
| 0:32.9 | Kandu is currently involved in a number of major cases, both at the state and federal level, |
| 0:37.8 | that will likely shape the future of Big Tech's impact on our society. |
| 0:41.5 | We have given power to these agencies, the gobbledygog alphabets soup of security agencies that |
| 0:48.2 | are not really accountable to anybody. Like any other agency, they tend to be co-opted by special |
| 0:54.4 | interests. This is American Thought Leaders and I'm Janja Kellek. |
| 1:00.8 | Adam Kandu, it's such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. A real pleasure. |
| 1:04.4 | Thank you for having me. So you've been working for years on First Amendment law, |
| 1:10.6 | teaching it, arguing cases. Right now, there is a number of cases related at the Supreme Court, |
| 1:18.9 | I think, quite significant cases. You've also been deeply involved in coming up with this |
| 1:26.1 | common carrier approach to dealing with Big Tech or Section 230. We've heard a lot about Section 230, |
| 1:34.1 | I'm going to get you to explain a little bit about the details. |
| 1:38.7 | Before we go there, I'll mention another thing. You've been involved in |
| 1:44.1 | coming up with the concepts that have now been implemented in Utah's social media law, |
| 1:50.8 | which is quite significant and might give people an idea of how you think about law and how you |
| 1:57.6 | think about these things. Right. So, involvement with protecting children on the internet is not |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Epoch Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Epoch Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.