Zuckerberg Throws the Open Internet Under the Bus; Support Section 230 Reform

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201027/14034445599/zuckerberg-facebook-throw-open-internet-under-bus-support-section-230-reform.shtml

by DLay • 6 years ago

13 10 6 years ago

techdirt.com

uberman• 6 years ago

As the dominant player in the market one would expect facebook to be in favor of introducing legislative barriers to entry

rasengan3• 6 years ago

The largest operators in any industry tend to support (and even lobby for) all kinds of costly regulations to create a moat around their business and cause the cost to enter said industry to be too steep for most.

It's interesting, because usually that lobbying is for something that generally helps people and can sometimes be seen as good legislation (such as tobacco regulation).

In this case, however, only harm is the outcome of removing the strengths provided by the first amendment.

Barrin922• 6 years ago

The proposed benefit of the legislation that takes these companies into responsibility is, depending on what political camp you're in, either reducing hate speech on digital platforms or reducing arbitrary censorship.

Debatable on either front but pretty tangible in either case. It's not even clear what the first amendment means in this context because it can be evoked on either side, the freedom of private platforms to moderate as they see fit or the freedoms of users to speak on essential infrastructure.

gnusty_gnurc• 6 years ago

The nutjobs on both sides(Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren) are in favor of sweeping changes, along with every big institutional player and company that's looking to erect barriers to entry.

Anyone who's interested in freedom should at least be very suspicious of the loud, censorious and moneyed all arguing this as an exigent matter.

2ndHandBuddah• 6 years ago

I only see one workable solution for this and that is to add a trusted third party layer that will enable users to select who they want to fact check their newsfeeds, pretty much like how we have the option to choose our default search engine today.

ry_co• 6 years ago

Section 230 made it possible for every major internet service to be built

Whatever your opinion on the law, this statement by Zuckerberg says all you need to know about why he would take this position. Climb the ladder, and then kick it out from under you.

Zuckerberg realizes that it is significantly cheaper to adjust to more social media regulation than it is to compete against competitors (e.g. Tok Tik). Removing or significantly reforming section 230 would ensure Facebook's position for many years to come. To paraphrase Thompson: Facebook grew virally, and so can it decline virally. Reform of 230 precludes the latter.

Zuckerberg Throws the Open Internet Under the Bus; Support Section 230 Reform

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