US President Joe Biden recently wrote an opinion piece (opens in new tab) The Wall Street Journal has called on Democrats and Republicans to unite over concerns that big tech companies are not responsible for content posted on social media platforms.
“Millions of young people suffer from bullying, violence, trauma and mental health. We must take responsibility for the experiments that social media companies are conducting on children for profit. No,” Biden says.
The fact that US social media companies have virtually no control over the content they post is due to the language of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
What is Section 230? It contains a passage commonly known as the 26 most important words in technology.
“Providers or users of interactive computer services are not treated as publishers or speakers of information provided by another information content provider.”
It arose in the early days of the web as a result of a catch-22 situation that the web encountered at the time. There have been calls for reform for several years in a 2020 review document (opens in new tab) (PDF WARNING) Please note from the U.S. Department of Justice that before Section 230 comes into effect, the platform previously “has no liability as a publisher if any of its content is defamatory.” otherwise It actually tried to get rid of it with moderation. So most people didn’t care.
Section 230 was passed to give businesses more protections and moderate liberties in hopes of preventing oppression of start-up Internet companies. Unfortunately, it ended up being part of the problem.
US reforms could mean big changes, hopes for better protections for victims of illegal activities, not for businesses, Gizmodo US (opens in new tab) Make a fair observation. Under such a strict crackdown, “Will even the Internet work?”
In the EU, what is called the Digital Services Act (opens in new tab) is currently in progress.yes the internet is still on jobsThe act threatens billions of dollars in fines for technology companies such as Facebook and YouTube, and forces them to improve their policies on illegal content.
Addressing growing concerns about the use of personal data, Biden expressed concern, stating, “Big technology companies are using users’ personal data to create extreme and divisive ways that users may be logged on and kept clicking.” It often leads to polarized content.” .”
Only time will tell if the reforms will succeed. The reality is that whatever that reform looks like, it will likely be something another group wants to get rid of within a decade.
