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No it's not. Twitter currently enjoys immunity from section 230 of the communication decency act. That protection requires that they are not editorializing cont

No it's not. Twitter currently enjoys immunity from section 230 of the communication decency act. That protection requires that they are not editorializing content. Fact checking content is a form of editorializing. If you want to do that, no protection and you are open to lawsuits. This has bi-partisan support and they are simply reining this in which is long overdue.

paulgb 6y ago
> That protection requires that they are not editorializing content. It doesn't. Here is its text: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230
sixstringtheory 6y ago
That is not editorializing. Day in and day out journalists print news stories that have been fact checked and contain links to source information. And then there’s the opinion section. It’s clear which Twitter was doing, and it wasn’t editorial.
- ww520 6y ago
  Newspaper doesn’t enjoy the protection of Section 230.
  - sixstringtheory 6y ago
    That doesn't matter because we can't even start talking about S230 until we agree that what Twitter did was editorializing, which it wasn't.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
akersten 6y ago
> That protection requires that they are not editorializing content. Please cite the law that says that, because it's certainly not S230. S230 was specifically made to empower sites to moderate, editorialize, and remove content as they see fit for their platform.
- zaroth 6y ago
  IANAL but I think Section 230 does not extend blanket immunity for any moderation "as they see fit," because then they would be a publisher and should be held up to publisher-type liability. > Section 230 protect a blog host from liability for “any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.” [1] The phrase "otherwise objectionable" has come under limited judicial review. It is not a unlimited catch-all, but relates back to the meaning and purpose of the preceding language, mainly dealing with mature themes. The Ninth circuit reviewed a case against Malwarebytes where they were blocking access to a competitor and they were hoping for Section 230 protection, but the Ninth found that "otherwise objectionable" did not extend to anti-competitive blocking. [2] I think it's also interesting that in this particular case it is not even really a question of restricting access or availability of material. Twitter is editorializing -- essentially adding a Editor's Note to Trump's tweet. That Twitter has to right to do this is unquestionable. The question is whether in doing so they have crossed a bridge into become a publisher and not a platform protected by Section 230 immunity. If you read the history / case law which Section 230 is meant to address, the issue was a contrast between Compu-Serv dodging liability from statements posted by users because they were not moderating topics, vs. Prodigy being found liable for user-posted statements because they were moderating topics. > Section 230 was enacted in early 1996, in the CDA’s Section 509, titled “Online Family Empowerment.” In part, this provision responded to a 1995 decision issued by a New York state trial court: StrattonOakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co. The plaintiffs in that case were an investment banking firm. The firm alleged that Prodigy, an early online service provider, had published a libelous statement that unlawfully accused the firm of committing fraud. Prodigy itself did not write the allegedly defamatory message, but it hosted the message boards where a user posted the statement. The New York court concluded that the company was nonetheless a “publisher” of the alleged libel and therefore subject to liability. The court emphasized that Prodigy exercised “editorial control” over the content posted on its Congressional Research Service site, actively controlling the content of its message boards through both an “automatic software screening program” and through “Board Leaders” who removed messages that violated Prodigy’s guidelines. [3] CDA's intention was to allow "good faith" / "Good Samaritan" moderation without triggering publisher liability. The CDA was not designed to totally eliminate the entire concept of publisher liability on the internet. There is a lesser standard of liability which falls upon distributors based on content which they "know or should have known" violated the law. It's a higher standard than publisher liability because it requires establishing direct knowledge of the offending material. Very interestingly, the courts found that CDA 230 actually precludes even distributor liability in the case the service knows or should have known of the illegal content, because distributor liability is a subset of publisher liability and if they don't have publisher liability then they can't have distributor liability. (I'm sure I'm butchering this explanation somewhat). This has become a problem as of late with issues like revenge porn or online harassment campaigns where service providers had refused to take down material even after being notified it was illegal, and were getting protection under Section 230 for keeping the content up! [1] - https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/230 https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/230 [2] - https://www.wileyconnect.com/home/2020/1/22/ninth-circuit-reaffirms-limit-on-section-230-immunity-for-filtering-objectionable-content https://www.wileyconnect.com/home/2020/1/22/ninth-circuit-re... [3] - https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/LSB10306.pdf https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/LSB10306.pdf
dgellow 6y ago
Even if that’s your take, doing this with an executive order feels like a totalitarian move.
- lgleason 6y ago
  edited for typos: Honest question with this comment. Which would you rather have controlling content. A private company that has not public accountability or a political official who was put in office via a democratic election? I get that a lot of people do not like Trump, but currently, even if he wanted to be a totalitarian leader the US currently has checks and balances that protect from that.
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    You ask that question as if it were a choice between the two. It's not. We have neither scenario now, and neither is being proposed. What we have is private enterprise, and government regulation. Neither has complete control, neither should have complete control.
  - ModernMech 6y ago
    > even if he wanted to be a totalitarian leader the US currently has checks and balances that protect that. What checks, exactly? There was an impeachment recently wherein he refused to hand over any documents and witnesses. Those witnesses who chose to testify in the House were retaliated against. The Senate refused to hear any witnesses (a first for impeachment trials in the US). The President argued that if he believes his conduct will help his election, and he believes his election will help the American people, he cannot be removed for the conduct. The senate affirmed this view by acquitting him of the charges and refusing to remove him from office. Or maybe the IG system checks him and his agencies? Well he's been busy firing any IG who is investigating him or his cronies like Mike Pompeo. Michael Atkinson was fired for bringing to light the fact that Trump was extorting a bribe from a foreign nation using taxpayer dollars. Glenn Fine was to oversee the spending of coronavirus federal dollars, but Trump wanted control of the money himself, so he had to go. Christi Grimm was fired for investigating PPE shortages in hospitals. Her findings flew against the Trump narrative that "everything was fine" so she had to go. Steve Linick was investigating corruption in the State Department, so he had to go at the request of the Secretary of State under investigation. Mitch Behm was investigating corruption of the Secretary of Transportation, who is the wife of Mitch McConnell, who refused to hear witnesses at Trump's impeachment trial. So he had to go. Or maybe the Justice department is a check? They are supposed to be independent after all. Well, they're busy interfering in cases related to Trump's friends and associates. His Attorney General is happy to run interference for Trump in a number of areas, whether that be misrepresenting the Mueller report, intervening in Roger Stone's sentencing, or declining to prosecute a man who already plead guilty to crimes. Oh, and an internal memo of the Justice Department states that the President is immune from indictment. So there's no check there. Maybe the court system can check Trump. He's been arguing in court that he has absolute immunity from investigation. He already enjoys immunity from indictment due to a memo written decades ago, but he asserts that he enjoys absolute immunity from even being investigated in the first place. If Congress and the DOJ can't even investigate him, how is the court supposed to hold him accountable? Americans really love to trot out this trope that we have a "system of checks and balances" as if this is a hack-proof system that is incorruptible. It's failing right in front of us.
CydeWeys 6y ago
Section 230 grants sites the freedom to moderate content. You've got it exactly backwards.
ineedasername 6y ago
First: editorializing is not prohibited. Second, moderation has always been allowed. In fact, the main thrust of 230 is to allow moderation activities taken in good faith. Also if a mass of bipartisan support existed, I expect it would have been rolled into the last changes that modified these liability protections on the topic of sex trafficking content. No, the truth is that this particular controversy began when the double standard arose on various social media platforms when the current administration's use of social media violated ToS yet was allowed to remain. This in turn prompted greater awareness of all such content and the extent to which it had been allowed or overlooked, resulting in efforts by social media platforms to simply enforce their own ToS. If there is a problem with the current Twitter actions taken, it's that they continue to try & thread the needle between two opposing goals: Adhering to their own ToS and preserving their platform as something other than a cesspool, and not adhering to their ToS in a way that makes powerful interest groups angry.

paulgb 6y ago

> That protection requires that they are not editorializing content. It doesn't. Here is its text: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230

sixstringtheory 6y ago

That is not editorializing. Day in and day out journalists print news stories that have been fact checked and contain links to source information. And then there’s the opinion section. It’s clear which Twitter was doing, and it wasn’t editorial.

ww520 6y ago
Newspaper doesn’t enjoy the protection of Section 230.
- sixstringtheory 6y ago
  That doesn't matter because we can't even start talking about S230 until we agree that what Twitter did was editorializing, which it wasn't.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

akersten 6y ago

> That protection requires that they are not editorializing content. Please cite the law that says that, because it's certainly not S230. S230 was specifically made to empower sites to moderate, editorialize, and remove content as they see fit for their platform.

zaroth 6y ago
IANAL but I think Section 230 does not extend blanket immunity for any moderation "as they see fit," because then they would be a publisher and should be held up to publisher-type liability. > Section 230 protect a blog host from liability for “any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.” [1] The phrase "otherwise objectionable" has come under limited judicial review. It is not a unlimited catch-all, but relates back to the meaning and purpose of the preceding language, mainly dealing with mature themes. The Ninth circuit reviewed a case against Malwarebytes where they were blocking access to a competitor and they were hoping for Section 230 protection, but the Ninth found that "otherwise objectionable" did not extend to anti-competitive blocking. [2] I think it's also interesting that in this particular case it is not even really a question of restricting access or availability of material. Twitter is editorializing -- essentially adding a Editor's Note to Trump's tweet. That Twitter has to right to do this is unquestionable. The question is whether in doing so they have crossed a bridge into become a publisher and not a platform protected by Section 230 immunity. If you read the history / case law which Section 230 is meant to address, the issue was a contrast between Compu-Serv dodging liability from statements posted by users because they were not moderating topics, vs. Prodigy being found liable for user-posted statements because they were moderating topics. > Section 230 was enacted in early 1996, in the CDA’s Section 509, titled “Online Family Empowerment.” In part, this provision responded to a 1995 decision issued by a New York state trial court: StrattonOakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co. The plaintiffs in that case were an investment banking firm. The firm alleged that Prodigy, an early online service provider, had published a libelous statement that unlawfully accused the firm of committing fraud. Prodigy itself did not write the allegedly defamatory message, but it hosted the message boards where a user posted the statement. The New York court concluded that the company was nonetheless a “publisher” of the alleged libel and therefore subject to liability. The court emphasized that Prodigy exercised “editorial control” over the content posted on its Congressional Research Service site, actively controlling the content of its message boards through both an “automatic software screening program” and through “Board Leaders” who removed messages that violated Prodigy’s guidelines. [3] CDA's intention was to allow "good faith" / "Good Samaritan" moderation without triggering publisher liability. The CDA was not designed to totally eliminate the entire concept of publisher liability on the internet. There is a lesser standard of liability which falls upon distributors based on content which they "know or should have known" violated the law. It's a higher standard than publisher liability because it requires establishing direct knowledge of the offending material. Very interestingly, the courts found that CDA 230 actually precludes even distributor liability in the case the service knows or should have known of the illegal content, because distributor liability is a subset of publisher liability and if they don't have publisher liability then they can't have distributor liability. (I'm sure I'm butchering this explanation somewhat). This has become a problem as of late with issues like revenge porn or online harassment campaigns where service providers had refused to take down material even after being notified it was illegal, and were getting protection under Section 230 for keeping the content up! [1] - https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/230 https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/230 [2] - https://www.wileyconnect.com/home/2020/1/22/ninth-circuit-reaffirms-limit-on-section-230-immunity-for-filtering-objectionable-content https://www.wileyconnect.com/home/2020/1/22/ninth-circuit-re... [3] - https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/LSB10306.pdf https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/LSB10306.pdf

dgellow 6y ago

Even if that’s your take, doing this with an executive order feels like a totalitarian move.

lgleason 6y ago
edited for typos: Honest question with this comment. Which would you rather have controlling content. A private company that has not public accountability or a political official who was put in office via a democratic election? I get that a lot of people do not like Trump, but currently, even if he wanted to be a totalitarian leader the US currently has checks and balances that protect from that.
- ineedasername 6y ago
  You ask that question as if it were a choice between the two. It's not. We have neither scenario now, and neither is being proposed. What we have is private enterprise, and government regulation. Neither has complete control, neither should have complete control.
- ModernMech 6y ago
  > even if he wanted to be a totalitarian leader the US currently has checks and balances that protect that. What checks, exactly? There was an impeachment recently wherein he refused to hand over any documents and witnesses. Those witnesses who chose to testify in the House were retaliated against. The Senate refused to hear any witnesses (a first for impeachment trials in the US). The President argued that if he believes his conduct will help his election, and he believes his election will help the American people, he cannot be removed for the conduct. The senate affirmed this view by acquitting him of the charges and refusing to remove him from office. Or maybe the IG system checks him and his agencies? Well he's been busy firing any IG who is investigating him or his cronies like Mike Pompeo. Michael Atkinson was fired for bringing to light the fact that Trump was extorting a bribe from a foreign nation using taxpayer dollars. Glenn Fine was to oversee the spending of coronavirus federal dollars, but Trump wanted control of the money himself, so he had to go. Christi Grimm was fired for investigating PPE shortages in hospitals. Her findings flew against the Trump narrative that "everything was fine" so she had to go. Steve Linick was investigating corruption in the State Department, so he had to go at the request of the Secretary of State under investigation. Mitch Behm was investigating corruption of the Secretary of Transportation, who is the wife of Mitch McConnell, who refused to hear witnesses at Trump's impeachment trial. So he had to go. Or maybe the Justice department is a check? They are supposed to be independent after all. Well, they're busy interfering in cases related to Trump's friends and associates. His Attorney General is happy to run interference for Trump in a number of areas, whether that be misrepresenting the Mueller report, intervening in Roger Stone's sentencing, or declining to prosecute a man who already plead guilty to crimes. Oh, and an internal memo of the Justice Department states that the President is immune from indictment. So there's no check there. Maybe the court system can check Trump. He's been arguing in court that he has absolute immunity from investigation. He already enjoys immunity from indictment due to a memo written decades ago, but he asserts that he enjoys absolute immunity from even being investigated in the first place. If Congress and the DOJ can't even investigate him, how is the court supposed to hold him accountable? Americans really love to trot out this trope that we have a "system of checks and balances" as if this is a hack-proof system that is incorruptible. It's failing right in front of us.

CydeWeys 6y ago

Section 230 grants sites the freedom to moderate content. You've got it exactly backwards.

ineedasername 6y ago

First: editorializing is not prohibited. Second, moderation has always been allowed. In fact, the main thrust of 230 is to allow moderation activities taken in good faith. Also if a mass of bipartisan support existed, I expect it would have been rolled into the last changes that modified these liability protections on the topic of sex trafficking content. No, the truth is that this particular controversy began when the double standard arose on various social media platforms when the current administration's use of social media violated ToS yet was allowed to remain. This in turn prompted greater awareness of all such content and the extent to which it had been allowed or overlooked, resulting in efforts by social media platforms to simply enforce their own ToS. If there is a problem with the current Twitter actions taken, it's that they continue to try & thread the needle between two opposing goals: Adhering to their own ToS and preserving their platform as something other than a cesspool, and not adhering to their ToS in a way that makes powerful interest groups angry.