[tptacek]

I think policy intervention that is backstopped by threats to remove provider liability protections is going to backfire, because when you get when providers are liable is radically more intrusive moderation, not less moderation.

As a matter of principle, any regulatory regime that would put HN as Dan moderates it at risk is bad, and what you're proposing would seem to threaten HN. All your bullets here seem like things that will pull providers into litigation.

[Karunamon]

It would make sense to combine these ideas with a circuit breaker that only kicks in once you have a certain MAU count.

Having it apply to every forum everywhere would suck and be unworkable, but once you're at Facebook/Twitter/Reddit/etc. levels of exposure, there are a different set of interests and responsibilities to society in play.

[tptacek]

You seem to be describing a scheme where Twitter is legally required to be very careful about moderation, but Parler isn't, which seems crazy to me. Also, it doesn't address other vehicles for suppressing toxic speech; for instance, no 230 change you come up with is going to obligate cloud providers to do business with Parler and StormFront.

I should add a point I should have made earlier, which is that 230 is in no way based on a notion of being "publishers" or "platforms". That's a super common misconception about the law.

[Karunamon]

Not at all. In my ideal world, Parler would have the same restrictions applied, and would have fallen afoul of point 4 at the very least, given their massive popularity spike. They also weren't completely hands off, so the last option is off the table for them.

That ambiguity is precisely what I try to address. That distinction might not exist now, but it arguably should.