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Basically the issue prior to 230 was that the major precedents worked out like this: if you didn't moderate at all, you were not treated as a publisher and were
by zerocrates 6y ago
Basically the issue prior to 230 was that the major precedents worked out like this: if you didn't moderate at all, you were not treated as a publisher and were not liable for the speech of your users. But if you did do some moderation/blocking, you could be seen as a publisher of the things you didn't block. So you have a kind of "all or nothing" type of situation.
The problem is: in terms of legal risk, "just allow everything" is safer, since it's quite expensive or even infeasible to completely moderate the platform. But Congress wanted to encourage internet companies to do moderation for things like pornography and other "indecent" content (this is part of the Communications Decency Act, after all), which is why this "Good Samaritan" section exists: to remove the specter of liability that could arise from even light-touch moderation. (But note that despite that title, the language is broad and not conditional on the presence or absence of any moderation scheme.)
Repeal has a few possibilities, one of which is as you said, just eliminate user-controlled content completely from some spaces, or moderate it extremely heavily (like requiring manual review before something is posted). But, the other extreme is also possible, of totally removing moderation to escape liability the other way around.
- marcinzm 6y ago>But, the other extreme is also possible, of totally removing moderation to escape liability the other way around. No it's not a possibility. Social media is paid for by advertising and no large advertiser wants to have their ads show up next to child pornography. Just look at what happened with Youtube.
- betterunix2 6y agoUnmoderated forums also lose users to moderated forums, because nobody wants to sift through a pile of trolls, nazis, pedophiles, etc. just to find something on-topic. I have seen it happen with Usenet, with any number of loosely moderated mailing lists, websites, and so forth. Users want some degree of moderation, and advertisers are going to gravitate toward the platforms with the most users.
- modmans2nd 6y agoLet’s not forget, companies still have to remove child porn due to other statues so a repeal of 230 would still result in theoretical liability.