The origin of Section 230 (1 Viewer)

[SoggyBottomBoy]

I never knew that the origin of the current, controversial law provision Section 230 came from the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and a troll on AOL. It's a tough fence to straddle between protecting freedom of speech and preventing harmful disinformation, bullying, etc. It's a simple, vague law right now, but I buy into overall. These internet providers are private companies and are to police themselves (or not) as they see fit. Gov stays out of it. But then you have cases like Ken Zeran that cyberbullied because AOL didn't respond. And he was unsuccessful trying to sue for damages. The internet is a tangled web (pun intended).

How One Man's Fight Against An AOL Troll Sealed The Tech Industry's Power

A fight between a Seattle man and AOL in the mid-1990s led to what has been called "the most important Internet law ruling ever." Decades later, the decision still governs how the web functions.

www.npr.org

 

[JRad]

As with most things, the truth is probably in the middle, but sites like this couldn't function the same without 230.