Washington.- This month, X closed its operations in Brazil after one of its executives was threatened with arrest for not taking down certain content.
Last year, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to federal money laundering violations that occurred on his cryptocurrency platform.
In 2021, Twitter executives in India faced arrest over comments the government wanted removed from the site.
And on Wednesday, Pavel Durov, who founded the online communications tool Telegram, was charged in France as part of an investigation into the platform’s complicity in crimes including the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse images.
For years, internet company executives have rarely faced accountability in Western democracies for what happens on their platforms.
But as law enforcement agencies, regulators and lawmakers have stepped up scrutiny of online platforms and the comments made there, they are increasingly considering holding those behind them directly accountable.
That shift was underscored by the charges against Durov, raising questions about whether tech executives like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg are also risking arrest when they set foot on European soil.
For now, tech executives have little to fear as cases like Durov’s are likely to be isolated, experts said.
Historically, companies have been held accountable for platform transgressions, rather than individuals.
Legally, the bar is high in the United States and Europe for prosecuting individuals for the activities of their companies, especially with U.S. laws like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects internet platforms from being held liable for harmful speech.
Although that threshold for holding executives accountable for what happens on their platforms is diminishing in specific areas, particularly when it comes to child safety.
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