A major contributing factor towards the growth of Big Tech is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed into law in 1996. Section 230 removed the liability for online services from hosting user-generated content that is deemed illegal, providing them safe harbor as long as they acted on such material when discovered in good faith. This allowed service providers in the early days of the Internet to expand offerings without having to invest heavily into content moderation.[73] For this reason, Section 230 is often called "The twenty-six words that created the Internet",[74] as it helped to fuel innovation in online services over the years that allowed Big Tech companies to grow and flourish.[75]