Internet platforms like Google and TikTok play an enormous role in our online speech and information environment today. This class will review the laws that shape platforms' decisions about online content, with a focus on intermediary liability laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Communications Decency Act Section LAW 230 (CDA 230), and the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), and will also consider constitutional and human rights issues. The majority of course material will be from the U.S., but some will explore international models and in particular laws in the European Union. Some classes will explore the impact of related areas of law, including privacy law, and some will go beyond current legal models to explore forward-looking legislative and policy proposals. Important themes of the class include constitutional and human rights constraints on intermediary liability laws; legal limits (or lack thereof) on platforms' enforcement of privatized speech rules under their Community Guidelines or Terms of Service; global enforcement of national laws requiring platforms to remove or carry content; and tensions between the goals of intermediary liability law and those of privacy, competition, and other legal frameworks. Students will be encouraged to think pragmatically about the legal, operational, and product design choices platforms may make in response to particular laws, drawing on the instructor's experience handling such questions as Associate General Counsel in charge of Google Web Search. Student responsibilities and elements used in grading: Students will be responsible for (1) posting a TBD number of reading response comments or questions to a class discussion board (the number will be set once class size is clear but will not exceed six posts, due twelve hours before class meets on the relevant day, they can be very brief and informal); (2) participating in class discussion, potentially including discussion of points raised in your written questions; and (3) either completing a final examination or, for law students, writing a paper. Some of the final class days will combine discussion of assigned class material and presentations by students writing papers. Only five students may write papers, and the paper option is available only to law students. MIP Students: The course is open to law students in year 2L and above, and students in the Masters in International Policy (MIP) program. Twenty-five students will be admitted, with an effort made to have LAW 20 students from the law school admitted by lottery (LAW 4051) and 5 from MIP admitted by instructor consent. MIP students may apply for consent to enroll in LAW.4051 by submitting a Non-Law Student Add Request Form available at https://law.stanford.edu/education/courses/non-law-students/ by November LAW 17, 2025. Non-Law Student Add Request Forms received after the deadline will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the class is full. The class meeting and examination dates will follow the law school calendar, which is different from the MIP program calendar. It is available at https://law.stanford.edu/education/courses/calendar-deadlines/. In admitting law students from the waitlist the instructor may prioritize based on students' degree programs. Papers: Five law students may write a paper in lieu of the final exam with consent of the instructor. Papers will be eligible for Law School R credit. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer from the exam section (LAW 01) into the paper section (LAW 02), with consent of the instructor. Cross-listed with International Policy (INTLPOL LAW 361).
3 units · Law Honors/Pass/Restrd Cr/Fail
Internet platforms like Google and TikTok play an enormous role in our online speech and information environment today. This class will review the laws that shape platforms' decisions about online content, with a focus on intermediary liability laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Communications Decency Act Section 230 (CDA 230), and the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), and will also consider constitutional and human rights issues. The majority of course material will be from the U.S., but some will explore international models and in particular laws in the European Union. Some classes will explore the impact of related areas of law, including privacy law, and some will go beyond current legal models to explore forward-looking legislative and policy proposals. Important themes of the class include constitutional and human rights constraints on intermediary liability laws; legal limits (or lack thereof) on platforms' enforcement of privatized speech rules under their Community Guidelines or Terms of Service; global enforcement of national laws requiring platforms to remove or carry content; and tensions between the goals of intermediary liability law and those of privacy, competition, and other legal frameworks. Students will be encouraged to think pragmatically about the legal, operational, and product design choices platforms may make in response to particular laws, drawing on the instructor's experience handling such questions as Associate General Counsel in charge of Google Web Search. Student responsibilities and elements used in grading: Students will be responsible for (1) posting a TBD number of reading response comments or questions to a class discussion board (the number will be set once class size is clear but will not exceed six posts, due twelve hours before class meets on the relevant day, they can be very brief and informal); (2) participating in class discussion, potentially including discussion of points raised in your written questions; and (3) either completing a final examination or, for law students, writing a paper. Some of the final class days will combine discussion of assigned class material and presentations by students writing papers. Only five students may write papers, and the paper option is available only to law students. MIP Students: The course is open to law students in year 2L and above, and students in the Masters in International Policy (MIP) program. Twenty-five students will be admitted, with an effort made to have 20 students from the law school admitted by lottery (LAW 4051) and 5 from MIP admitted by instructor consent. MIP students may apply for consent to enroll in LAW.4051 by submitting a Non-Law Student Add Request Form available at https://law.stanford.edu/education/courses/non-law-students/ by November 17, 2025. Non-Law Student Add Request Forms received after the deadline will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the class is full. The class meeting and examination dates will follow the law school calendar, which is different from the MIP program calendar. It is available at https://law.stanford.edu/education/courses/calendar-deadlines/. In admitting law students from the waitlist the instructor may prioritize based on students' degree programs. Papers: Five law students may write a paper in lieu of the final exam with consent of the instructor. Papers will be eligible for Law School R credit. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer from the exam section (01) into the paper section (02), with consent of the instructor. Cross-listed with International Policy (INTLPOL 361).
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.