Content Moderation Issues Online: Section 230 Is Not to Blame

Authors

Reese D. Bastian, Texas A&M University School of Law (Student)Follow

Document Type

Notes & Comments

Abstract

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“Section 230”) is the glue that holds the Internet—as we know it today—together. Section 230 says, “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.” Simply put, Section 230 says that websites or platforms are not liable for content posted by third parties. There are many critics who attribute the maladies of the online world to Section 230. Section 230 presents issues such as over-moderation by Interactive Computer Service (“ICS”) providers that can go as far as to be considered censorship and under-moderation that leads to uncomely and even unsafe cyberspaces. Repealing or weakening Section 230 will not fix over-moderation—or even under-moderation—online but allowing and fostering competition in the tech sector will.

DOI

10.37419/JPL.V8.I2.1

First Page

43

Last Page

72

Recommended Citation

Reese D. Bastian, Content Moderation Issues Online: Section 230 Is Not to Blame, 8 Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. 43 (2022).
Available at: https://doi.org/10.37419/JPL.V8.I2.1