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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the change-is-in-the-wind dept.

Democrats want a truce with Section 230 supporters:

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which says apps and websites aren't legally liable for third-party content, has inspired a lot of overheated rhetoric in Congress. Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) have successfully framed the rule as a "gift to Big Tech" that enables social media censorship. While Democrats have very different critiques, some have embraced a similar fire-and-brimstone tone with the bipartisan EARN IT Act. But a Senate subcommittee tried to reset that narrative today with a hearing for the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency (PACT) Act, a similarly bipartisan attempt at a more nuanced Section 230 amendment. While the hearing didn't address all of the PACT Act's very real flaws, it presented the bill as an option for Section 230 defenders who still want a say in potential reforms.

[...] Still, Section 230 has been at the forefront of US politics for years, and some kind of change looks increasingly likely. If that's true, then particularly after today's hearing, a revised version of the PACT Act looks like the clearest existing option to preserve important parts of the law without dismissing calls for reform. And hashing out those specifics may prove more important than focusing on the policy's most hyperbolic critics.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @01:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @01:33AM (#1029047)

    Way to completely miss the point.

    Decentralized services are great and all, but what would actually happen is that twitter/fb and any decentralized server nodes would start locking down and banning users. That already happens with decentralized servers, admins have to be cautious of who they allow into their "network" or risk being banned from the larger node that do not tolerate certain subjects.

    The dream you have will fall to pieces in reality as paranoia of lawsuits increases. So you'll be forced into even more controlled walled gardens then now, or live in the fringes publishing your own content as you are able to right now. There is really no upside except some self-righteous sense of retribution against the tech industry.

    I'm starting to wonder if these attacks on 230 aren't a sly attempt to enact even stricter controls while allowing corporations to shrug their shoulders and say their hands are tied. Right now they don't have that excuse, their actions sit on their own shoulders.