Reddit Child Porn Case Exposes ‘Ambiguous’ Section 230 Carve-Out

A Ninth Circuit panel struggled with the ambiguous legislative text establishing what online platforms like Reddit Inc. had to know in order to face liability for child sex trafficking taking place on their sites during oral argument on Monday.

“We, like you, wish that Congress drafted everything beautifully, clearly, and everyone understood exactly what they meant,” Circuit Judge Milan Smith said. “But we got what we got.”

The dispute, which arose from anonymous victims of child pornography who sued Reddit for allegedly “turning a blind eye” to the trafficking, hinged on a 2018 amendment to Section 230 of the Communications ...