Posted on 09/15/2022 7:11:55 PM PDT by janetjanet998
President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that his administration would push to end the immunity Big Tech platforms enjoy for third-party content, an effort Republicans previously backed.
"I'm calling on Congress to get rid of special immunity for social media companies and impose much stronger transparency requirements on all of them," the president said, per the New York Post.
Specifically, he called for the repeal of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, echoing similar demands from Republicans in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, amid the outcry over tech company censorship of explosive allegations against Hunter Biden.
Biden's call, however, came in the context of curtailing online hate speech. With the repeal of Section 230, Biden aims to "hold social media companies accountable for spreading hate-fueled violence."
So just to be clear you’re for a full repeal of Section 230 ie you believe the Biden Admin should be able to shutdown sites like FR at will if a random user makes a post here they deem ‘hateful’ or ‘misinformation’?
Depends on what replaces it. The Left are all about speech codes, safe spaces, burning and looting to stop speakers on college campuses, etc. they are racists and demand unity through fascism
This is the correct take.
I don’t and never thought changing 230 is a good idea in a competitive environment. Because there’s competition I think it’s fine as is.
230 was only a problem when there was monolithic single platforms without real competition. Is that the case still? I don’t think so.
It will be the selective enforcement that will be to our distinct disadvantage. But when has it ever been otherwise?
Repealing section 230 will not lead to a shutdown of Free Republic. There is a lot of fearmongering out there and most of it was put out there by the likes of Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Heck, Zuckerberg even went to congress and begged for an increase in regulations.
Had Zuckerberg gotten his way and received an increase of regulations - THAT is what would've shut down Free Republic.
I’ve not taken a position regarding 230. I’m asking whether the proposal suddenly becomes bad because Xiden is calling for it now.
When Trump was calling for it, the majority here supported repeal.
Does that change now?
Spot on! FR already moderates content and removes all violations. Even if section 230 did apply, it’s doubtful that it would make any difference.
I’m sure the Dem Internet hate speech and antimisinformation commissars will agree Jim’s doing a bang up job running this place and leave us and all the conservative sites alone.
Repealing Section 230 would not make it legal for the government to simply shut down websites with which it disagrees. Libel/defamation could be the basis for a lawsuit, but that’s really it. The First Amendment would still apply to government efforts to shut down a website.
You need to actually read the OP. The very last sentence says ‘Biden aims to “hold social media companies accountable for spreading hate-fueled violence.”’. The Dems wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t think they couldn’t gain some advantage out of it.
If Section 230 is repealed, pretty much every photo posted on FreeRepublic could be cause for liability.
Sure it does. It applies to any "interactive computer service", clearly including FR.
And besides, FB, Twitter, Google, etc. are all privately owned entities under the law.
Having your stock publicly traded doesn't make you a publicly owned company.
Better answer: declare them common carriers and strip them of the power to censor content.
“Similar demands” were to remove section 230 immunity when a platform stops being neutral and starts censoring one side but not the other.
Not a binary choice.
If it is repealed, you then have the issue of enforcement.
Biden would use it to shut down any competitors to Twitter and Facebook, whereas Trump would prevent political censorship and election interference.
I'd ask Congress to refine the law to accomodate these realities.
Yep.
How it will be used, this is one more move to totalitarianism.
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