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DOE v. FACEBOOK, INC. 

Statement of THOMAS, J. 

steps “to protect their users from the malicious or objection-
able activity of other users.”  625 S. W. 3d, at 83.  The Texas 
Supreme Court acknowledged that it is “plausible” to read 
§230(c)(1)  more  narrowly  to  immunize  internet  platforms 
when plaintiffs seek to hold them “strictly liable” for trans-
mitting third-party content, id., at 90–91, but the court ul-
timately  felt  compelled  to  adopt  the  consensus  approach, 
id., at 91. 

This  decision  exemplifies  how  courts  have  interpreted
§230 “to confer sweeping immunity on some of the largest 
companies  in  the  world,”  Malwarebytes,  Inc.  v.  Enigma 
Software Group USA, LLC, 592 U. S. ___, ___ (2020) (slip 
op., at 1) (statement of THOMAS, J., respecting denial of cer-
tiorari), particularly by employing a “capacious conception
of what it means to treat a website operator as [a] publisher 
or  speaker,”  id.,  at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  8)  (internal  quotation
marks omitted).  Here, the Texas Supreme Court afforded 
publisher  immunity  even  though  Facebook  allegedly
“knows its system facilitates human traffickers in identify-
ing and cultivating victims,” but has nonetheless “failed to 
take any reasonable steps to mitigate the use of Facebook 
by human traffickers” because doing so would cost the com-
pany users—and the advertising revenue those users gen-
erate.  Fourth Amended Pet. in No. 2018–69816 (Dist. Ct.,
Harris Cty., Tex., Feb. 10, 2020), pp. 20, 22, 23; see also Re-
ply Brief 3, n. 1, 4, n. 2 (listing recent disclosures and inves-
tigations  supporting  these  allegations).    It  is  hard  to  see 
why the protection §230(c)(1) grants publishers against be-
ing held strictly liable for third parties’ content should pro-
tect Facebook from liability for its own “acts and omissions.” 
Fourth Amended Pet., at 21. 

At the very least, before we close the door on such serious
charges,  “we  should  be  certain  that  is  what  the  law  de-
mands.”  Malwarebytes,  592  U. S.,  at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  10). 
As  I  have  explained,  the  arguments  in  favor  of  broad  im-
munity under §230 rest largely on “policy and purpose,” not