Communications Decency Act (CDA)

The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was Title V of the United States Telecommunication Act of 1996. As passed by Congress, Title V affected the Internet and online communications in two significant ways. First, it attempted to regulate both indecency and obscenity in cyberspace that could be available to children. Second, Section 230 of the act declared that operators of Internet services were not to be construed as developers, and thus were legally liable for the words of third parties who used their services.
The CDA imposed broadcast-style content regulations on the open, decentralized Internet and severely restricted the First Amendment rights of all Americans. There was strong opposition to this legislation because it threatened the very existence of the Internet as a means for free expression, education, and political discourse.
The most controversial portions of the CDA were those relating to indecency and obscenity on the Internet. The relevant sections of the act were introduced as a response to fears that Internet pornography was on the rise. Indecency in television and radio broadcasting had already been regulated by the Federal Communications Commission: broadcasting of offensive speech was restricted to certain hours of the day, when minors were supposedly least likely to be exposed. Violators could be fined and potentially lose their licenses. The Internet, however, had only recently been opened to commercial interests by the 1992 amendment to the National Science Foundation Act and thus was not addressed by many previous laws. The CDA, which affected the Internet and cable television, marked the first attempt to expand regulation to this new sphere.
The CDA prohibited posting “indecent” or “patently offensive” materials in a public forum on the Internet, including web pages, newsgroups, chat rooms, and online discussion lists. The CDA, however, was not about child pornography, obscenity, or using the Internet to stalk children since these activities were already illegal under current law. Free speech advocates, however, worked diligently and successfully to overturn the portion relating to indecent, but not obscene, speech. They argued that speech protected under the First Amendment, such as printed novels or the use of the “seven dirty words,” would suddenly become unlawful when posted to the Internet. Critics also claimed the bill would have a chilling effect on the availability of medical information.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 12, 1996, a panel of federal judges blocked part of the CDA, saying it would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults. On July 29 a U.S. federal court struck down as too broad the portion of the CDA intended to protect children from indecent speech. A year later, on June 26, 1997, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, stating that the portion concerned was an unconstitutional abridgement of the First Amendment right to free speech because it did not permit parents to decide for themselves what material was acceptable for their children, extended to noncommercial speech, and did not define “patently offensive,” a term with no prior legal standing.