Trump's Twitter reign of terror is over. But his impact on social media isn't.
Violent attacks on the Capitol point to Section 230 as the next battle for social media regulation.
By Tiffany C. Li, MSNBC Opinion Columnist
Not since the War of 1812 have armed militants breached the walls of the Capitol. But this time, the insurrection was televised — and hosted on social media websites around the world.
This is a dark time in American history. Heightened focus on social media, and its ability to fuel extremist actions like violent attacks on the Capitol, show yet again that the next battle for social media regulation will likely be Section 230, the law that provides some legal immunity for internet platforms regarding certain kinds of liability that may arise due to user-generated content. Both President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden have called for repeals of Section 230, and the law has been incredibly controversial for years now.
The recent armed uprising was driven by right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists (and the immense overlapping population that belong to both camps), many of whom had gathered to promote #StopTheSteal events on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, as well as the no-holds-barred extremist favorite, Parler.
Section 230, broadly speaking, protects websites like Facebook and Parler from being sued for content users post on the sites. For example, if a user posts a defamatory statement on Facebook, the defamed person cannot sue Facebook for that post. This is important because, without this protection, many websites would not be able to operate as they do now, allowing for free and open discussion and exchange of ideas. Small websites in particular would suffer from threats of litigation, and many sites would likely turn to over-censoring their users in an attempt to avoid liability.
While Section 230 can support the ability of websites to provide venues for free speech, it also immunizes websites from legal responsibility for hosting many kinds of harmful content. Due to Section 230 protections, website operators often do not have any legal obligation to take down posts that amount to harassment, doxxing, cyberbullying, nonconsensual pornography, hate speech, disinformation, hoaxes and more. In recent years, we have seen increasingly terrible offline results of online actions, including the wide spread of political disinformation.
In response to the Trump-supporting extremists storming the Capitol, platforms like Twitter and Facebook have finally taken the previously unprecedented leap to ban or block Trump’s account. Twitter blocked Trump’s ability to tweet — first for less than a day, before permanently suspending his account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence." Facebook suspended his account “indefinitely.” Twitch also banned his account. Even e-commerce platform Shopify joined in, deleting all Trump merchandise from its website.
Some may say tech platforms didn’t act fast enough and could have done more. But whether we wanted a faster response or not, it is still a positive sign that platforms have increased their moderation efforts — and better that it’s happened in a thoughtful and careful manner, over the course of the past few years. And it’s a good thing that we were able to see what was happening unfolding live as it happened, from multiple sources (including streamed and posted from the insurrectionists themselves).
READ MORE: Trump's Twitter reign of terror is over. But his impact on social media isn't.
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Saturday, January 9th 2021 at 6:25PM
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