Without a robust Section 230, it's difficult to see many of the most popular platforms today existing. It's no surprise that soon after CDA 230 we saw the rise of blogging and social media -- and almost always coming from American companies. Both would be significantly more difficult without Section 230's protections. In fact, much of the push for Section 230 came in response to a horrible court case, Stratton Oakmont v. Prodigy, in which an internet bulletin board commenter attacked financial firm Stratton Oakmont, and its president, for apparently being involved in criminal and fraudulent activity.

Hubski exists because Section 230 of the CDA limits the liability of Team Hubski from the user generated comments and content on their site. The original Communications Decency Act as signed by Bill Clinton was tossed out with the exception of the Section 230 protections for website operators. We would not be able to communicate as easily if this law did not exist.

Way back in the days of the ancients, I was on a web service called "The Well" based in San Francisco. You had to pay to use the service, use your real name and have a copy of a photo ID to send to them. This was all due to the way the laws were back then; If I said something terrible or libelous on your server, you would be liable for that content and someone could sue you and your company for words I typed.

The CDA is gone (may it burn in hell) but Section 230 remains.

user-inactivated:


posted 2997 days ago