The Open Social Web Needs Section 230 to Survive

This is the same as the EFF blog[1] that's been posted here a few times recently.

I agree that the way that a lot of the internet generally works in the US generally depends on Section 230, because it essentially allows websites big and small to avoid needing to really moderate their content, because they're not responsible for it, the user is. If this law changed it would fundamentally change the way that these services operate.

However, I feel like this misses a big point: these big services can simply do more moderation, and it is possible to make a more nuanced law than what currently exists. It is entirely possible to design a law where smaller communities need less strict moderation (e.g. nothing illegal like CSAM), while bigger ones need more. The thing that bigger companies want you to believe is that it's impossible at their scale, but it's not that it's impossible, it's that is fairly costly and would eat severely into profits, and so they really, really do not want to lose Section 230 protection.

1: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/open-social-web-needs-...