| > No, I think that ycombinator, who provides this forum... shouldn't. Good, then we're in agreement on that. > This thing where we've traded societal trust for profits for the companies destroying it is a bad choice We're in agreement on that too. > section 230 is what enables it. Here is where we disagree. Section 230 is not what enables the big tech giants. Section 230 is what protects sites like this one, that do not do the sorts of things the big tech giants do, but do host user-provided content. Without Section 230, ycombinator would have to be prepared to defend every moderation action it takes in court. The big tech giants actually don't care whether or not they have to do that; the cost of that is hardly even rounding error in their accounting. If Section 230 were repealed, they'd be fine; maybe they'd have to charge some more for ads on average to make up the difference. Big deal. Sites like this one, however, would not be fine. Ycombinator might still be able to keep this site up, because they're well enough known that they might be able to get some political traction if someone took them to court. But the "small communites with internal trust relationships" that you talk about? Those need something like Section 230 to avoid being sued out of business by the first a*hole that wants to post there and is told they can't because of their behavior, and has enough time and effort to spare to take them to court. If we want to outlaw something that might put a spoke in the wheels of the big tech giants, IMO it would be the ad-supported business model--the idea that a large corporation providing a service that's of obvious value to billions of people can get out of any responsibility towards those people simply by saying, well, we're providing the service for free, take it or leave it. And then saying they need to monetize those same people's data to stay in business, because, well, how else are we going to pay for this valuable service we're providing? |