Sen. Josh Hawley Calls for Repeal of Legal Immunity for Tech Platforms
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) highlighted the risks posed by artificial intelligence on Thursday, advocating for the repeal of a law that shields technology platforms from legal accountability for content they host or create.
During his addresses at the National Conservatism Conference, Hawley specifically targeted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. He pointed to the unauthorized use of copyrighted material on major tech platforms as a prime example of exploitation.
He remarked, “AI language models have been trained on enough copyrighted works to fill the Library of Congress 22 times. To make it clearer—these AI models are consuming all published works across every known language.”
Hawley continued, looking around the audience of writers, and questioned, “All of your work has already been utilized without your consent. Were you consulted? I doubt it. Were you compensated? Certainly not. This situation is unacceptable and truly concerning.”
In his speech, he contended that companies using specific data should be held accountable for property rights violations.
“We need to open the doors to the courtroom, allowing us to take legal action against those who have been wronged, including companies, individuals, and actors engaged with AI,” he stated.
Back in July, Hawley had mentioned in a hearing that Meta had “intentionally” promoted vast amounts of copyrighted content to train its AI models.
He disclosed that during a Judiciary Committee session, he had heard allegations regarding the piracy of Meta’s copyrighted material.
“They knew exactly what they were doing. They consciously pirated these materials to saturate their AI with copyrighted works. Employees warned management about the legality of their actions. One employee pointed out, ‘This is not a trivial thing,’ sharing information about the risks associated with illegal downloads,” he explained.
Hawley questioned, “Did management heed these warnings? Not at all.”
Author David Baldacci expressed frustration, saying, “Every aspect of my book was taken. It was showcased in mere seconds, leaving me feeling robbed of everything I had worked for in my adult life.”
