Section 230 Under Threat of Repeal

[GreenNeonWhale]

Hello Fellow Gentoo Forum Users,

I'm writing today to get the word out about a bill, currently under consideration in the United States House of Representatives, Energy and Commerce Committee, to "sunset"/repeal Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230). I view this bill to be a direct threat to the following:
- This very forum
- Open Source software, and Linux Distributions in general
- Free speech in the United States, and globally
- A Free and Open internet in general

I'll try and explain my position as briefly as I can, although brief write ups aren't really my strong suit.
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Short Version:

No Section 230 -> Any Moderation Whatsoever = "Editorial Control" -> HUGE Legal Risk of a bankrupting lawsuit -> All forums and internet resources not funded by mega corporations, or the super rich, are knocked off-line.

This forum, and the Gentoo distribution, could become at risk of being sued over a single post, thus driven to bankruptcy, thus knocked off-line.

Section 230 has often been described as the "foundation" of the internet.
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Longer Write Up:

Section 230 protects internet providers from being responsible, and legally liable, for user posted content that they host and moderate. By providers, I mean any entity, whether they are a mega corporation, a small business, a Linux distribution, or an individual person.

Without Section 230, any entity that hosts any user posted content, and does any moderation whatsoever, is legally liable for said content -- Any Moderation = "Editorial Control". Without Section 230, the only way I know of to protect against a lawsuit is one of two options: host no user posted content whatsoever, or, perform no moderation at all, of any kind.

Most internet resources consisting of user posted content, tend to become useless quite quickly without any moderation (spam, trolls, etc). I contend that, most of the time, some moderation is required to run an internet resource that has any user posts.

In the US, one must pay for one's own defense in a lawsuit, which can easily hit hundreds of thousands, to millions of dollars, for each one. Even if one wins, one is generally on the hook for all the legal expenses -- lawyer costs, court fees, etc. In addition, these lawsuits can drag on for years, or even decades. The loosing party is not required to pay the winner's costs, like in many European countries. Thus, the risk of a bankrupting lawsuit is so large, that only the super rich and mega corporations can afford to take it.

This legal risk could knock out all the small players, leaving ONLY the big boys left. This could entrench current "Big Tech".

I have serious concerns that a repeal of Section 230 would hand mega corporations and the super rich, a cheap and easy tool to silence and shut down anything they don't like on-line. Just one lawsuit concerning one user post could be enough. They could perhaps do this under the premise of: Any Moderation = Editorial Control. If Editorial Control is being exercised, then a lawsuit can be brought. I'm concerned that Linux distributions, and Free Open Source software would be vulnerable to this, as forums are generally where the support is. Without the forums, support is much more difficult, distributions and FOSS are much less desirable. I'm also concerned about potential settlement demands of ceasing all operations immediately and forever, above and beyond forums, just to avoid a bankrupting lawsuit -- basically legal extortion. I can think of plenty of big companies and wealthy entities that would love to destroy FOSS. Among them: RIAA, MPAA, and Microsoft.

Free speech, both in the US, and globally, would be greatly curtailed as well. I believe the risk to expand beyond the US, due to anyone hosting in the US, regardless of their nationality, being vulnerable to a lawsuit. A generally free and open internet is also at risk, due to new and massive legal risks.

So, if you're an American, I ask you to please support Section 230, and oppose this latest attempt to repeal it. Please contact/nag your representatives.

The EFF has a couple of good write ups, and I'm sure there's plenty more available with a brief search.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/wanna-make-big-tech-monopolies-even-worse-kill-section-230

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/section-230-not-special-tech-company-immunity

[eccerr0r]

As a fairly well stocked moderator count, having a laser focused topic list, and the abolition of OTW, I think f.g.o has fairly good moderation and we don't have to worry about bad posts not getting removed and won't have to worry about this.

IMHO it's the really gigantic forums that should worry the most, especially FB, reddit, etc. where topics are highly variable and moderation is not applied globally and hence content that might pass for one section does not for another. Should we worry about FB?
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[GreenNeonWhale]

My take is that Facebook would likely benefit from this (unfortunately), should it come to pass. They are quite wealthy, huge, and can actually afford to defend themselves in court, repeatedly. This is an advantage that small entities and individuals don't have (with rare exception).

Thanks for your optimism regarding this forum, its good to read.

[eccerr0r]

I can argue on the other side too, there is a nice aspect of having a broad non-focused website where multiple topics can be discussed. It truly brings a community together. This is a shortfall (deliberate) of sites like f.g.o - we're not allowed to talk about Windows or 3d printing here (other than for compatibility with Gentoo of course), as these are clearly off topic.

However moderation gets very difficult when multiple topics are involved... so I can see why FB and reddit don't want 230 repealed so they don't have to worry about moderation causing user fragmentation because some people solely wants to talk about windows being better than Linux.

(Yes I'm being facetious here, of course I'm not talking about Windows posts getting 230'ized, but it's still polyticks...)
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[Zucca]

I steer a little off-topic here but:
Speaking as myself now, not representing views of other moderators and/or admins.

[eccerr0r]

And that sort of leads to feature creep... 3d printing is not just about using the printer, it's also modeling...then what about photography? Photography modeling? Tutorials on editing or requests for others to do specific edits to their models?

Should we add subforums just to accommodate people who don't want to see models and only interested on getting their FreeCAD or GIMP working under Gentoo better?

Feature creep...
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Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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[szatox]

Is FGO hosted in USA?
I mean, does this even apply?

I do agree that this kind of law deserves attention and possibly (haven't read it, so no strong opinion on whether it is a good or a bad law) pushback before it spills over to other countries, but the the same time there is no reason to heed every single want from just about anyone in the world.

[eccerr0r]

I'm sure the (pending) tiktok treatment could apply to websites that don't adhere to 'standards' ...

most countries already do this around the world so this isn't new.
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?