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Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Censorship and Section 230

People are now regularly and broadly being censored by the social media companies from posting potentially life-saving information (we can postulate as to why, but it doesn't matter here).

Section 230 makes social media platforms immune to prosecution for content posted by their users. In principle this should lead them to NOT censor, and presumably that's exactly the point of it, but instead it's being abused in the opposite spirit.

Or, is it?

Is there anything in section 230 that makes them immune to being sued for the harm they cause by selectively censoring? Can, e.g., anyone whose relative dies of COVID sue Facebook for preventing them from learning about things they could have done to save them?

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