#Section230 (Jan 9, 2021)
- Ana Farrell
- Jan 9, 2021
- 2 min read
A good friend of mine posted a thoughtful picture on her wall, sharing the point of view that I agree with. A private business ( twitter ) has the right to do whatever they want with their product or service. I have a business and frankly, I choose to do what I want with anything regarding my business.
Fair.
But there is more. Twitter and many of these Big Tech companies have a special protection that I, as a business owner like them, don't enjoy. (Section 230)
See, if I decide to refuse service to anyone, and that person wanted to sue me for being refused service, I could actually loose such suit. They could claim all kinds of crazy, and, now a days, with the courts the way they are, the vilain wins often.
Big Tech companies have a special protection that was voted into law, and such law protects them from being sued. For example, if a crazy person posts videos showing ways to kill people or recipes to poison animals, or how to build a bomb, and another crazy person uses that information to actually kill/poison or bomb something, the hurt party cannot sue Bigh Tech.
Logically then, the question or comment arises - "Why doesn't Big Tech remove such content?" Good question! Why don't they?
Ah - but the next argument would say - "what is truly horrendous surely should be removed". Now we are entering a subjective argument - the scale of "horrendous" is blurry. The law does not define that and it is really up to the business. Furthermore, ( I always wanted to use that word in a text!!! Felling smart right about now) there is no need for the content to be deemed "horrendous" in order to be deleted. It can actually be anything the business decides it does not like. Just like my business. But with benefits. From the Government.
And that is why Section 230 should no longer protect Big Tech. They can be free to post , let people post, and delete people, block people, write their rules, change their rules, just as I do with my business. And they can handle lawsuits that may come their way as a consequence to their actions. Just like I have to do too.
Fair.
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