ROUND TABLE - What Section 230 Actually Does

Are Facebook and Twitter protected by a shield that stops them from being responsible for any of their content? We bring on Mike Masnick from TechDirt and Shoshana Weissman from the R Street Institute to talk about what Section 230 is, what it isn’t, and whether it needs to be changed. 

SHOW NOTES:

Shoshana Weissmann, Senior Manager of Digital Media and a policy Fellow at the R Street Institute.

https://senatorshoshana.medium.com/who-am-i-ff164b02707e

Mike Masnick, founder and CEO of the Copia Institute and editor of the Techdirt blog.

https://www.techdirt.com/user/mmasnick

Our discussion isn't a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. The goal of this discussion is to explore some of the legal issues surrounding CDA 230.

The central text of Section 230

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230

(1) Treatment of publisher or speaker

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

There is also a section right after that on Civil Liability that offers further protections for taking certain moderation actions. 

-- What is Section 230 designed to do?

-- What are some of the major misconceptions about Section 230?

-- If section 230 were repealed with no replacement, what do you think the effect would be?

-- Do you believe Congress should replace 230? If so, with what? If not, why?

Mike:

-Fix a typo

-Reverse FOSTA

-Remove intellectual exemption property