Techdirt Podcast Episode 192: Section 230 And Political Bias

from the debate-time dept

We've got another panel discussion from the Lincoln Network's Reboot conference this week, all about the law on everyone's minds lately: Section 230 of the CDA. The debate includes law professor Eric Goldman, the EFF's Corynne McSherry, and Dr. Jerry A. Johnson from National Religious Broadcasters, offering up a wide spectrum of opinions on Section 230 and political bias.

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Filed Under: cda 230, first amendment, free speech, podcast, politics, section 230


Reader Comments

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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Dec 2018 @ 4:51pm

    Because big internet companies are more important than individual reputations...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 11 Dec 2018 @ 5:57pm

    Re:

    Huh? That's like exactly the opposite of the point of CDA 230, which protects individuals ability to speak.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Dec 2018 @ 10:03pm

    Re:

    You chose to use a throwaway pseudonym, John Smith.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Mason Wheeler (profile), 13 Dec 2018 @ 7:56am

    Re: Re:

    ...except when such protection is directly in conflict with the big internet company's ability to silence them, in which case censorship trumps the protection of individuals' ability to speak. And that's problematic.

    This whole thing felt like a bit of an echo chamber. When Jerry Johnson said (paraphrasing) "yeah, I agree with y'all that we don't want any regulation, we don't want antitrust or consumer protection laws coming into effect here and we don't want to break up any monopolies" I cringed a little. Because it really feels like that's exactly what is needed lately, and nobody wanted to present that side of things. We had Eric (I think) saying we need more competition, but unwilling to even mention how you get that in a world of natural monopolies, which the Network Effect will inevitably give rise to.

    He said he looks forward to a world ten years from now that doesn't look like the one we have today with the Internet dominated by a handful of companies. Well, in the real world, we have two choices: enforce the laws we have against monopolies, or end up with the Internet dominated by a handful of companies. Maybe not the same ones we have today, but... there's a reason the phrase "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" exists. If we want competition, we need to apply a force more powerful than the Network Effect. It really is that simple.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    fairuse (profile), 4 Jan 2019 @ 9:13pm

    No Comment

    Netflix "Patriot Act" guy takes on CDA 230 and moderation.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CQ5-NMzG8s

    link to this | view in thread ]


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