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ancianita

(35,812 posts)
Sat Feb 20, 2021, 01:09 AM Feb 2021

Back to 230, Cuz Yeah, Biden and Democrats Need To Rethink It. Seriously.

Last edited Sat Feb 20, 2021, 11:40 AM - Edit history (1)

If you hate Trump’s Tweets
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you hate fact-checks,
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you love fact-checks and wish Facebook had to do more of them,
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you're upset that Twitter and Facebook keep removing content that favors your political viewpoints,
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you're upset that your favorite social media site won't take down content that offends you,
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you're mad at search engines for indexing websites you don't agree with,
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you're mad at a website for removing your posts - even when it seems unreasonable
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you don't like the way a website aggregates content on your feed or in your search results,
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you wish websites had to carry and remove only specific pre-approved types of content
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If you wish social media services had to be politically neutral,
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

If someone wrote a negative online review about you or your business,
Your problem is with the First Amendment, not Section 230.

And at the end of the day, If you hate editorial discretion and free speech,
You probably just hate the First Amendment... not Section 230.


What many erroneously (and ironically) declare as “censorship” is really no different from the editorial discretion enjoyed by newspapers, broadcasters, and your local bookstore. When it comes to the online world, we simply call it content moderation. The decision to fact-check, remove, reinstate, or simply leave content up, is wholly within the First Amendment’s purview. On the flip side, as private, non-government actors, websites do not owe their users the same First Amendment protection for their content.

Or, as TechFreedom’s brilliant Ashkhen Kazaryan wisely puts it,
the First Amendment protects Twitter from Trump, but not Trump from Twitter.

What then is Section 230’s use if the First Amendment already stands in the way? Put simply, Section 230 says websites are not liable for third-party content.

In practice, Section 230 merely serves as a free speech fast-lane. Under Section 230, websites can reach the same inevitable conclusions they would reach under the First Amendment, only faster and cheaper.

Importantly, Section 230 grants websites and users peace of mind knowing that plaintiffs are less likely to sue them for exercising their editorial discretion—and even if they do—websites and users are almost always guaranteed a fast, cheap, and painless win.

That peace of mind is especially crucial for market entrants posed to unseat the big tech incumbents.
With that, it seems that Americans haven’t fallen out of love with Section 230, rather, alarmingly, they’ve fallen out of love with the First Amendment.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201030/09165945621/your-problem-is-not-with-section-230-1st-amendment.shtml


Biden and the Democrats don't want to be that party.
We know when "fire" is yelled in a crowded theater; we know a protest from an armed insurrection, insurrection from sedition, free speech honeypot from entrapment, information from news from propaganda, real accounts from fake accounts.

Amend it. Don't end it. Bill Clinton said that. How Democrats do that, or not, is the issue. Not 230.
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