philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Why the internet still needs Section 230

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Just look at Bluesky, which has gained millions of users in only a few months as people flee X. Without Section 230, anyone aggrieved by a decision from Bluesky’s nascent moderation team could initiate a devastating lawsuit on any number of claims, smothering it in legal fees even if it won. The next upstart may never launch at all — leaving users with no alternatives to the government-favored Big Tech cartel.

Critics of Section 230 often charge that the internet has fundamentally changed in the past three decades. Yet the bill’s 26 key words were written to address the same challenges we face today: keeping kids safe online, leveling the playing field between entrenched corporate interests and small innovators, and ensuring that individuals — not the government — control what we see online. ...

We captured these elements in the name we attached to our bill: the Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act.

Some critics of Section 230 claim it’s granted special rights to internet platforms. Yet at its heart our proposal simply applied four long-standing principles and rights to the internet.

First, a distributor is not a publisher. ...

Second, distribution of content is as protected as the creation of content. ...

Third, distributors have the right to determine what content they will carry or not carry, as well as the conditions in which they carry or promote content, and that those decisions do not make them publishers. 

Fourth, only the actual speaker, writer, or publisher of content is accountable for that content. ...

[Section 230 is] 26 carefully chosen words:

“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by an information content provider.” ...

We were well aware of the old A. J. Liebling adage, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” We wanted to continue to guarantee that freedom in the new world — where everyone owns a press that they carry in their pocket.

See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/policy/626326/ron-wyden-section-230-history-it-takes-chutzpah-excerpt