Technology How the Supreme Court ruling on Section 230 could end Reddit as we know it

tom_mai78101

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When the Supreme Court hears a landmark case on Section 230 later in February, all eyes will be on the biggest players in tech—Meta, Google, Twitter, YouTube.

A legal provision tucked into the Communications Decency Act, Section 230 has provided the foundation for Big Tech’s explosive growth, protecting social platforms from lawsuits over harmful user-generated content while giving them leeway to remove posts at their discretion (though they are still required to take down illegal content, such as child pornography, if they become aware of its existence). The case might have a range of outcomes; if Section 230 is repealed or reinterpreted, these companies may be forced to transform their approach to moderating content and to overhaul their platform architectures in the process.

But another big issue is at stake that has received much less attention: depending on the outcome of the case, individual users of sites may suddenly be liable for run-of-the-mill content moderation. Many sites rely on users for community moderation to edit, shape, remove, and promote other users’ content online—think Reddit’s upvote, or changes to a Wikipedia page. What might happen if those users were forced to take on legal risk every time they made a content decision?

In short, the court could change Section 230 in ways that won’t just impact big platforms; smaller sites like Reddit and Wikipedia that rely on community moderation will be hit too, warns Emma Llansó, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Free Expression Project. “It would be an enormous loss to online speech communities if suddenly it got really risky for mods themselves to do their work,” she says.

In an amicus brief filed in January, lawyers for Reddit argued that its signature upvote/downvote feature is at risk in Gonzalez v. Google, the case that will reexamine the application of Section 230. Users “directly determine what content gets promoted or becomes less visible by using Reddit’s innovative ‘upvote’ and ‘downvote’ features,” the brief reads. “All of those activities are protected by Section 230, which Congress crafted to immunize Internet ‘users,’ not just platforms.”

 
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  • tom_mai78101 tom_mai78101:
    Starting this upcoming Thursday, I will be in Japan for 10 days.
  • tom_mai78101 tom_mai78101:
    Thursday - Friday will be my Japan arrival flight. 9 days later, on a Sunday, will be my return departure flight.
    +2
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Hope you have safe travels my friend!
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  • vypur85 vypur85:
    Wow spring time in Japan is awesome. Enjoy!
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Hopefully it will be more pleasure than work
  • vypur85 vypur85:
    Recently tried out ChatGPT about WE triggering. Wow it's capable of giving a somewhat legitimate response.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I am sure it has read all the info on the forums here
  • The Helper The Helper:
    i think triggering is just scripting and chatgpt is real good at code
  • vypur85 vypur85:
    Yeah I suppose so. It's interesting how it can explain in so much detail.
  • vypur85 vypur85:
    But yet it won't work.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    it does a bad ass job doing excel vba code it has leveled me up at my job when I deal with excel that is for sure
  • vypur85 vypur85:
    Nice! I love Excel coding as well. Has always been using Google to help me. Maybe I'll use ChatGPT next time when I need it.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    yeah whatever it puts out even if it is not perfect I can fix it and the latest version of chatgpt can create websites from pictures it will not be long until it can do that with almost all the tools
    +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    These new Chat AI programs are going to change everything everyone better Buckle the Fuck Up!
  • The Helper The Helper:
    oh and Happy Tuesday Evening! :)
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  • jonas jonas:
    Im worried they'll change things for worse
  • jonas jonas:
    A lot more low quality content, a lot more half-baked stuff.
  • jonas jonas:
    If you're good enough to spot the mistakes of the answers you don't need it in the first place. If you aren't good enough, you're gonna rely on some half-correct stuff
  • The Helper The Helper:
    the earlier AI is and has been used extensively for publishing news and other content for a while now
  • jonas jonas:
    I used to be active on quora, it's now flooded with extremely similar, superficial answers that often miss the point of the question
  • N NJJ:
    hi
  • N NJJ:
    Hello, gathering all my old accounts… :)
    +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    by all means gather it all up!

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