SmugMug’s President stresses the vital role of Section 230 in enabling the platform’s ability to host millions of photographers’ work and protect the company from liability.
📍 United States
SmugMug, a family-owned photo hosting and e-commerce platform, relies heavily on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to operate. Founded in 2002, the company supports thousands of professional photographers by offering tools for showcasing their portfolios, delivering client galleries, selling prints, and managing payments. In 2018, their acquisition of Flickr, a massive photo-sharing community, dramatically expanded their user base to include tens of millions of hobbyist photographers. However, this expansion is increasingly threatened by potential changes to Section 230, a law that currently shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content.
During an interview with Joe Mullin, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), SmugMug’s President and COO, Ben MacAskill, highlighted the practical implications of eliminating or significantly narrowing Section 230. He explained that without the legal protection, SmugMug, like many smaller online businesses, would be forced to meticulously moderate every upload, comment, and interaction, a task that’s simply not financially viable. MacAskill painted a stark picture: a potential delay of weeks for a photographer awaiting their wedding photos due to moderation queues, or the risk of personal liability if an inappropriate image were posted.
MacAskill emphasized that SmugMug’s current approach – focusing on reporting illegal content – is already a significant undertaking, and eliminating Section 230 would make the scale of this operation completely unmanageable. He argued that such a change would fundamentally alter the nature of the internet, impacting platforms like Instagram and shifting the burden of content moderation entirely onto the user-generated content creators. SmugMug currently works with nonprofits and government agencies to combat illegal activity, but feels that eliminating Section 230 would cripple their ability to provide a reliable service.
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