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A faceless corporation can't throw me in jail for hosting an indie web forum.

mikewarot 2y ago
A faceless corporation could be encouraged to use it's algorithm for profit in a way that gets you killed.... as was the main point of the article.
- krapp 2y ago
  That's far more abstract than sending men with guns to your house.
- personomas 2y ago
  [dead]
- falcolas 2y ago
  That can also be done today by way of the government (at least in the US): swatting. To be a bit cliched, there's a rather a lot of inattention and time that lets a child kill themselves after watching a video.
- tedunangst 2y ago
  So the theory is the girl in question was going to start competing with TikTok, so they showed a suicide inducing video to silence her?
nradov 2y ago
True, but this particular case and Section 230 are only about civil liability. Regardless of the final outcome after the inevitable appeals, no one will go to jail. At most they'll have to pay damages.
- falcolas 2y ago
  > no one will go to jail Did you know that there's has been a homeowner jailed for breaking his HOA's rules about lawn maintenance? The chances are good that someone will go to jail.
  - nradov 2y ago
    I don't know that because it's obviously false. If someone was jailed in relation to such a case then it was because they did something way beyond violating the HOA CC&Rs, such as assaulting an HOA employee or refusing to comply with a court order. HOAs have no police powers and private criminal prosecutions haven't been allowed in any US state for many years. Citation needed.
    - falcolas 2y ago
      Google is your friend. Sorry to be so trite, but there are literally dozens upon dozens of sources. One such example happened in 2008. The man's name is "Joseph Prudente", and he was jailed because he could not pay the HOA fine for a brown lawn. Yes, there was a judge hitting Joseph Prudente with a "contempt of court" to land him in jail (with an end date of "the lawn is fixed or the fine is paid"), but his only "crime" was ever being too poor to maintain his lawn to the HOA's standards. > “It’s a sad situation,” says [HOA] board president Bob Ryan. “But in the end, I have to say he brought it upon himself.”
      - nradov 2y ago
        It's not my job to do your legal research for you and you're misrepresenting the facts of the case. As I expected, Mr. Prudente wasn't jailed for violating a HOA rule but rather for refusing to comply with a regular court order. It's a tragic situation and I sympathize with the defendant but when someone buys property in an HOA they agree to comply with the CC&R. If they subsequently lack the financial means to comply then they have the option of selling the property, or of filing bankruptcy which would at least delay most collections activities. HOAs are not charities, and poverty is not a legally valid reason for failing to meet contractual obligations.
        falcolas 2y ago
        So, having a bad lawn is ultimately worse than being convicted of a crime, maybe even of killing someone, since there's no sentence. There's no appeal. There's no concept of "doing your time". Your lawn goes brown, and you can be put in jail forever because they got a court order which makes it all perfectly legal. > It's not my job to do your legal research for you and you're misrepresenting the facts of the case. So, since it's not your job, you're happy to be ignorant of what can be found with a simple Google search? It's not looking up legal precedent or finding a section in the reams of law - it's a well reported and repeated story. And let's be honest with each other - while by the letter of the law he was put into jail for failing to fulfill a court order, in practice he was put into jail for having a bad lawn. I'll go so far to assert that the bits in between don't really matter, since the failure to maintain the lawn lead directly to being in jail until the lawn was fixed. So no, we don't have a de jure debtor's prison. But we do have a de facto debtor's prison.

A faceless corporation could be encouraged to use it's algorithm for profit in a way that gets you killed.... as was the main point of the article.

krapp 2y ago
That's far more abstract than sending men with guns to your house.
personomas 2y ago
[dead]
falcolas 2y ago
That can also be done today by way of the government (at least in the US): swatting. To be a bit cliched, there's a rather a lot of inattention and time that lets a child kill themselves after watching a video.
tedunangst 2y ago
So the theory is the girl in question was going to start competing with TikTok, so they showed a suicide inducing video to silence her?

nradov 2y ago

True, but this particular case and Section 230 are only about civil liability. Regardless of the final outcome after the inevitable appeals, no one will go to jail. At most they'll have to pay damages.

falcolas 2y ago
> no one will go to jail Did you know that there's has been a homeowner jailed for breaking his HOA's rules about lawn maintenance? The chances are good that someone will go to jail.
- nradov 2y ago
  I don't know that because it's obviously false. If someone was jailed in relation to such a case then it was because they did something way beyond violating the HOA CC&Rs, such as assaulting an HOA employee or refusing to comply with a court order. HOAs have no police powers and private criminal prosecutions haven't been allowed in any US state for many years. Citation needed.
  - falcolas 2y ago
    Google is your friend. Sorry to be so trite, but there are literally dozens upon dozens of sources. One such example happened in 2008. The man's name is "Joseph Prudente", and he was jailed because he could not pay the HOA fine for a brown lawn. Yes, there was a judge hitting Joseph Prudente with a "contempt of court" to land him in jail (with an end date of "the lawn is fixed or the fine is paid"), but his only "crime" was ever being too poor to maintain his lawn to the HOA's standards. > “It’s a sad situation,” says [HOA] board president Bob Ryan. “But in the end, I have to say he brought it upon himself.”
    - nradov 2y ago
      It's not my job to do your legal research for you and you're misrepresenting the facts of the case. As I expected, Mr. Prudente wasn't jailed for violating a HOA rule but rather for refusing to comply with a regular court order. It's a tragic situation and I sympathize with the defendant but when someone buys property in an HOA they agree to comply with the CC&R. If they subsequently lack the financial means to comply then they have the option of selling the property, or of filing bankruptcy which would at least delay most collections activities. HOAs are not charities, and poverty is not a legally valid reason for failing to meet contractual obligations.
      - falcolas 2y ago
        So, having a bad lawn is ultimately worse than being convicted of a crime, maybe even of killing someone, since there's no sentence. There's no appeal. There's no concept of "doing your time". Your lawn goes brown, and you can be put in jail forever because they got a court order which makes it all perfectly legal. > It's not my job to do your legal research for you and you're misrepresenting the facts of the case. So, since it's not your job, you're happy to be ignorant of what can be found with a simple Google search? It's not looking up legal precedent or finding a section in the reams of law - it's a well reported and repeated story. And let's be honest with each other - while by the letter of the law he was put into jail for failing to fulfill a court order, in practice he was put into jail for having a bad lawn. I'll go so far to assert that the bits in between don't really matter, since the failure to maintain the lawn lead directly to being in jail until the lawn was fixed. So no, we don't have a de jure debtor's prison. But we do have a de facto debtor's prison.