Why Section 230 Is a Good Law and Why Messing with It Would Be Bad

9 points by speckx 2 hours ago | 4 comments

tracker1
I think that censorship should be expressly limited based on size and usage of 230 protections. ex: if you have 10+ million users and you want to cite section 230 protections, you may not censor protected speech, but maybe allow users to opt-in to a "censored" feed, or otherwise limited such as for minors.
I'm mixed, but I don't think companies should have 230 protection AND be able to make express publisher decisions on editorializing content.
- SpicyLemonZest
  I think this is one of those things that only ever makes sense in the abstract. How would this rule apply to Stratton Oakmont v. Prodigy? Would it make sense to tell Prodigy that they'll be immune from defamation suits if only they agree to make their offensive language monitoring opt-in and publish a new code of conduct permitting racial slurs?
  tracker1
  I'm honestly not sure... it could also backfire with intentional social groups... such as someone created a social network expressly for progressives or conservatives, where repeated contrarian rhetoric is simply disallowed (for good or bad), for people who want to live in their bubbles, like MSNow.
  (last comment regarding MS Now is meant for humor)
ocdtrekkie
(Reminder that TechDirt is also a lobbyist Copia Insitute who takes money from big tech clients.)
Section 230 is a terrible law because it exempts one class of business from any responsibility for their actions.
A global company which faces no penalties for allowing malicious and fraudulent content has no incentive to police itself, and its clients live outside the reach of the law. Ergo, they make money on crime and have no responsibility for it.
If we want to fix the Internet, step one is deleting 230 in its entirety, and step two is ensuring a tech platform cannot profit from illegal activity. That means if they sell a malicious ad, they at bare minimum, have to give up that revenue, and ideally, face a penalty for it if they aren't taking adequate measures to prevent abuse.
A true financial risk to tech platforms is the only way to incentivize good behavior.