Even though it’s only 26 words long, Section 230 doesn’t say what many think it does.
So we’ve decided to take up a few kilobytes of the Internet to explain what, exactly, people are getting wrong about the primary law that defends the Internet.
Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230) is one of the most important laws protecting free speech online. While its wording is fairly clear—it states that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider” —it is still widely misunderstood. Put simply, the law means that although you are legally responsible for what you say online, if you host or republish other peoples’ speech, only those people are legally responsible for what they say.
Continue reading “Section 230 is Good, Actually”
