The Alan Thierer: Technologies of Freedom blog celebrates what he terms "the greatest of all Internet laws."
The law is an obscure provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996: 47 U.S.C. §230, otherwise known as “Section 230” and it helped foster the abundance of informational riches that lies at our fingertips today:
• Message boards and specialized websites exist for practically every hobby or interest under the sun.
• Community forums help us connect with local schools, churches, or civic organizations.
• There are shopping sites, auction services, and online classifieds to satisfy our every desire.
• Social networking sites and messaging services allow us to keep up with friends and family or network with others.
• Finally, there exists a seemingly endless array of blogs and news sites delivering a daily deluge of information to us that has become overwhelming, but search engines help us sort through it.
There are many technological and economic reasons for this unprecedented explosion of speech and human interaction, but the primary legal reason lies with Sec. 230. If not for the immunities granted [to "interactive computer services"] by Sec. 230, online speech and commerce would have been severely stifled because of the threat of legal action....
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