What this bill does

This bill set new laws for managing an evolving telecommunications environment - including telephone service and the internet.

Media ownership

Removed restrictions on media ownership, allowing large media companies to purchase smaller ones.

Phone companes

The law removed restrictions on phone companies - allowing local phone companies to provide long-distance service while requiring them to enable long-distance companies to provide local service use their facilities.

Section 230 - Protections for sites

Title V of the act often is referred to simply as Section 230. This provision protects websites from liability for something that someone directly publishes on their site.

It states, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

It also provides legal protections for sites that restrict access to "objectionable" material.

It does not offer protection for material that violates federal laws - including sexual exploitation of children and intellectual property violations.

Communications Decency Act

Part of Title V, the CDA made it a criminal offense to knowingly transmit "indecent" or "patently offensive" material.

In 1997, the Supreme Court invalidated the CDA as violating the First Amendment.

More information

For more on the law, read the Encyclopedia Britannica article.