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> The only thing that keeps the forums themselves from catching a lawsuit when that happens is s230. Section 230 came about because of suits against for-profit
by anonymouskimmer 4y ago
> The only thing that keeps the forums themselves from catching a lawsuit when that happens is s230.
Section 230 came about because of suits against for-profit entities. Has there ever been suit against the likes of IRC, USENET, or BBSes for libel from content of their participants?
- shadowgovt 4y agoIt would have to be a suit against individual nodes, which would certainly increase the cost (particularly for something like USENET). ... But that's a little irrelevant because those services are ghost towns relative to the past now. The more pressing reason nobody would bother to sue those channels is because nobody cares what's said there. If the loss of s230 shuttered the web services, and there were a migration back to those channels instead of just a quieter internet... Eventually a threshold would be reached that would be worth it for somebody to fire off a salvo of lawsuits against those service providers. A lot of IRC and USENET nodes are tied to institutions with enough assets that they aren't judgment-proof.