01-24-2021, 09:39 AM
SMH.
You are totally missing the point. It's not YOU that the forum would have to worry about. It's someone else who may not even be on this forum who reads something you wrote that the forum would have to be worried about! Let's take the Ahmaud Abrey case. People on this forum were claiming he was carrying a hammer or something right before he was killed. All of the actual video evidence proves that's false. But some people persisted in it. We are such a small fish in a big ocean that such libel isn't an issue. But it could be. Or take the Sandy Hook or Pizzagate conspiracy theories. Alex Jones already had to settle lawsuits on both of those. Say if EVERY web-forum that that allowed such conspiracy theories to be pushed were liable to being sued? Would that lead to more free speech or less? And don't kid yourself into thinking that can't happen. And you might say "Well those conspiracy theories are true." You have the right to believe that. That doesn't mean you won't lose in court for propagating them.
Now, I like what you said here:
"individuals are personally responsible....not platforms."
That is exactly the point of Section 230! Exactly! 100%! A state court had held Prodigy Inc. liable for the content of an individual's post being libel against someone who wasn't even on Prodigy Inc. The court's reasoning? Because Prodigy Inc. had removed some offensive content, Prodigy Inc. was acting like a "publisher" and not a "platform." So either Prodigy Inc. had not moderate NOTHING in order escape liability (porn, child porn, prostitute ads, whatever), or Prodigy Inc. was responsible for EVERYTHING (user X saying that the local burger joint had a roach infestation). This is where TheCount has a better understanding of this issue than some here. Section 230 has never been about end user's ability to sue over their post being deleted or editorialized or edited. It's always been about whether some third party, that might not even use the service, can sue the platform over what what the users post. You're right in your gut thinking that such lawsuits shouldn't be allowed.
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Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty
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