Expand Intermediary Liability to Protect Reality Itself

Abstract

It may sound like a bit of a stretch to say that intermediary liability law will shake the foundations of reality. However, consider the nature of what an intermediary is, and what intermediaries do. Currently, the internet intermediaries of the present act as venues and hosts, inter-mediating between people and information. Intermediaries are search engines, social media apps, web hosting providers, and the like. These online intermediaries seem clearly separable from our offline, “real” lives in the physical world. Yet, as our world grows increasingly digitized, it is all but inevitable that human beings will live more of their lives online than offline. In an increasingly online world, in which we interact with each other through an ever increasing number of new intermediaries, the concept of intermediary liability must be re-calibrated to adapt to new technologies. New intermediaries will include the engines for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) environments, as well as smart cities and Internet of Things (IoT) environments. Intermediary liability doctrine should expand to include these new technological intermediaries.