Section 230
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Search complete. 210 mentions across 61 episodes found for "Section 230".
Oct 27, 2026
Peter ChapmanGUEST
It's not like a judge would be bound by this agreement between attorneys general and Meta.
Peter ChapmanGUEST
And in fact, some commentary has focused on the fact that some of the things that Meta agreed to, you know, they'd previously challenged on First Amendment or Section 230 grounds in the U.S.
Peter ChapmanGUEST
I didn't mention, but there was actually a judge verdict in New Mexico just a few weeks before this settlement where a judge saw very similar claims that had gone through trial just with the New Mexico attorney general and issued a judgment that has some similarities as well as some key differences.
Peter ChapmanGUEST
I think the state of Texas negotiated its own settlement and financial arrangements alongside this 47 state settlement and Florida is going to pursue its own litigation as well.
Nikki PetroskiHOST
And Sarah, can you explain why the content that they saw and were exposed to is not at play?
Sarah GardnerHOST
There is a law called Section 230, which is an immunity law for social media platforms that protects them against lawsuits from what users post on their website that the platform doesn't control.
Sarah GardnerHOST
So just to give you an example, if you have some wackadoo person who's posting horrible racist ideology somewhere.
Sarah GardnerHOST
And they, they post it up to a Facebook messenger page or whatever, Facebook page.
Sarah GardnerHOST
Facebook is not liable for the fact that that person, that user posted that there, therefore they are also not liable.
Sarah GardnerHOST
If I'm a young person or a child scrolling through Instagram and I see other things that people have posted, they are not liable for that content because that's what the protections around Section 230 provide.
Sarah GardnerHOST
Now, there are a lot of questions about whether that still holds true because now when you think about environments that people are in, there are questions about whether they should curate that environment to be safer and have safer content.
Sarah GardnerHOST
But the problem is that all gets very messy with Section 230.
Jonathan KanterGUEST
If anything, we have rules not to regulate the internet.
Jonathan KanterGUEST
So Section 230 in immunity actually gave the internet companies a free pass with respect to lots of rules and made it easier for them to innovate without the concerns about liability.
Jonathan KanterGUEST
And I think we've learned the hard way that the results are not necessarily positive for the public.
Jonathan KanterGUEST
And so I think there's a sense this time around that AI is so even more potentially transformational than the Internet and that we need something in place to protect the public.
Sam MithaHOST
That's a key right there, even if he's Democratic or Democrat.
Sam MithaHOST
to reform section 230 which critics say will target americans on social media to post conspiracy theories about israel okay so section 230 let's go into this a little bit um your job is not by the way if you're fbi director or representative there's no reformation of section 230 you don't need to reform anything what what are you trying to reform you're trying to add more stipulations that's basically what you're trying to do so section 230 is publisher and platform if you want to be a publisher are liable from a civil point of view if you want to be a platform you cannot act as a publisher it's that simple so i guess i need to provide examples if you have a personal website and you want to determine what you're putting on the website what you're going to sell what information you're going to post what pictures you're going to share you know you're a publisher you're liable for the content you put on that website If you're a platform like X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, these are all major platforms, which means other people are going on your site, on your platform, they're posting, you are not liable for anything they're posting, but you cannot act as a publisher.
Sam MithaHOST
If you act as a publisher, it's a violation of law, and now you can be liable.
Sam MithaHOST
If you don't want to be liable, you cannot come in as a publisher.
Sam MithaHOST
If you want to be a platform, you're not liable, but you can't go in and be a publisher.
Sam MithaHOST
That's it.
Sam MithaHOST
When it comes to conspiracy theories about Israel, when you say reform Section 230, you want to go in, whether someone is a publisher or a platform, and say, in either regard, you cannot criticize Israel based on anything unfounded.
Sam MithaHOST
What does that mean, unfounded? You're going to rely on one central body? Is the body going to be the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance? you know, anyone can come up with anything.
Duane ForresterHOST
Lawmakers in Europe, or maybe the US, could decide AI answers get the same protections as services that simply pass along other people's content.
Duane ForresterHOST
Now, here in the US, no court has directly ruled on whether Section 230 covers text and AI model rights, and legal folks expect that question to come up soon.
Duane ForresterHOST
A ruling that leans the platform's way would make most of the American pressure disappear.
Duane ForresterHOST
Four, the platforms fix this inside the model.
Tyler JankeHOST
Tonight's docket, the $6 million MIT defamation verdict.
Tyler JankeHOST
Michigan Senate race, Section 230, anti-Semitism policy, MAGA meltdown, media meltdown, and a bad take.
Tyler JankeHOST
This is commentary, not legal advice.
Tyler JankeHOST
I've been advised.
22 MINS LATER
Tyler JankeHOST
Now, I don't know if this is true or not.
Tyler JankeHOST
I tend to think it's what, what is the FBI director going to do? This is a joy job for Congress, you know, that wrote the legislation.
Tyler JankeHOST
Um, I'm a fan of Section 230 just because it gives power to be able to have a voice there on the Internet.
Tyler JankeHOST
And then you don't necessarily have liability that comes back to all the platforms because if the liability was coming back to the platforms for what's said there, they're just going to shut things down.
Tom PerrielloGUEST
I mean, I think that the people driving AI for the most part, other than the ones that are now saying, please help us, please save us from ourselves, essentially, have this belief that the world would be a better place if everyone just left them alone to have as much power and data and everything as possible.
Tom PerrielloGUEST
And it goes back to a mistake that was made in the 90s, an understandable mistake called Section 230, which meant that the social media, the internet companies did not have liability.
Tom PerrielloGUEST
So the baseline in our country is you have liability.
Tom PerrielloGUEST
If somebody wrecks my car, if I go to a restaurant and I get poisoned, I can sue that company.
Mike VizardHOST
And whether that actually winds up being the final fine, of course, will depend on how many more appeals there are.
Mike VizardHOST
But I guess my question here is there seems to be a general need or agreement that we need some sort of social media reform, and it may require rethinking how Section 230 is applied.
Mike VizardHOST
But let's start with the money first.
Mike VizardHOST
John, is this enough money to scare Metastrate? Well, you
Jon SwartzGUEST
So they got hit hard.
Jon SwartzGUEST
But I got bad news for them.
Jon SwartzGUEST
Section 230 may not save them.
Jon SwartzGUEST
It didn't do it in this case, nor will it perhaps in the future.
Joseph McNallyGUEST
And the way that you get on Fizz is through your .edu account at the school that you go to.
Joseph McNallyGUEST
And so one question that people have is like, why aren't the platforms doing more? You know, when a post is made and then ultimately somebody is either threatened or harmed or a post is made and then somebody goes to somebody's house and actually physically harms them, why isn't there accountability for Instagram or Facebook? And that goes back to what many of you may be familiar with, which is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Joseph McNallyGUEST
And what Section 230 says is that In almost all cases, an internet service provider, a platform, Instagram, Facebook, pick your social media application, does not have liability for a cause of action that arises from a content that is being posted on its website.
Joseph McNallyGUEST
So somebody goes and posts something on Facebook, harm happens.
Joseph McNallyGUEST
The law is pretty subtle that that tech platform is not accountable for And they don't have any duty to police the speech or liability of the consequences from the consequences or harm that flows from the speech.
Joseph McNallyGUEST
So they're ultimately not liable.
Joseph McNallyGUEST
And that is something that Congress has continued to take a look at.
Joseph McNallyGUEST
And, you know, there's a great debate that continues to go around Section 230.
Matt PearceGUEST
Federal law no longer allows this.
Matt PearceGUEST
So we identified this particular tax deduction as something where California kind of overlooked it.
Matt PearceGUEST
It's a bit archaic.
Matt PearceGUEST
And so in our bill, we proposed to take it away, and it actually happily is estimated to more than pay for these credits, which would be the largest of their kind, uh, in the U S uh, the problem was the U S or the California chamber of commerce does not like this idea.
Matt PearceGUEST
That makes it very hard to have sustainable government support for, you know, the kinds of policies or programs that you need to have to have a robust, you know, social endeavor.
Dean BakerHOST
That's a really important point.
Dean BakerHOST
I want to come back then a second, but one of the things that I wanted to emphasize, because again, this is something people have seen my work over the years.
Dean BakerHOST
I harp on it, yell about it endlessly.
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