Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Section 230 Is a Load-Bearing Wall - Is It Coming Down?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

A U.S. law known as Section 230 is currently being challenged in response to disputes about moderation on social media sites. It's popularly referred to as "the twenty-six words that created the internet," though I think this gives it too much credit. The law treats internet providers as 'common carriers' - they're not legally responsible for the content they carry, no more than the phone company or the post office is responsible. But it also allows them to moderate content if they wish, in the interest of providing good service. Online services have always been criticized for too much or too little moderation, but the current case adds a new wrinkle: whether the use of recommender algorithms changes the status of service providers, making them content publishers in their own right, and not just common carriers. It could go either way. So long as one party simply pays another to carry content, 230 would seem to apply, but the more the carrier gets paid or influenced by third parties (for example, advertisers or politicians) to shape that traffic, the more they may be considered publishers in their own right.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 2:18 p.m.

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