The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a major challenge to the legal shield known as Sec

ation.

230 that has protected websites from the south for what users post there.

In a brief unsigned opinion, the court said it would not rule on the potentially important issue because the plaintiffs filing the lawsuit had no valid claims that Twitter or Google aided terrorists, which was the basis of the lawsuit.

The result will likely be a sigh of relief from the

series of

Websites that have grown and prospered thanks to the protections put in place by Congress at the dawn of the Internet.

“This is a huge victory for freedom of speech on the Internet,” said Chris Marchese, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center. The court was asked to undermine Article 230 and refused.

Earlier this year, the court heard its first major challenge against so-called Sec

ation.

230, which raises the possibility that social media sites and internet giants such as Facebook, Google or Twitter could be sued for harm done by what their users have posted there.

But the judges concluded that the legal challenge rested on

a

questionable lawsuits. They rejected an anti-terrorism claim filed against Twitter and then rejected the challenge to Sec

ation.

230

“We therefore declined to consider the application of Sec. 230 to a complaint that appears to contain little or no plausible claim for relief,” the court said in Gonzalez v. Google.