But it’s really the bias issue driving the Section 230 reform effort on the right, as the title of Hawley’s bill suggests. Despite a paucity of evidence beyond the stray anecdote, Trumpublicans have persuaded themselves that Big Tech is systematically suppressing conservative speech. Maybe, then, the point of the bill is less about passing legislation so that Big Tech is somehow “neutral” — as determined by a group of political appointees — than chilling current moderation efforts that sometimes hurt Trump-friendly accounts and affirming the conspiratorial grievance politics so widespread on the right.

On the other side, instead of complaining that Big Tech censors too much, Democrats want more of it and think Section 230 should somehow push companies to moderate harder. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently warned tech companies that their legal immunity was “in jeopardy” after Facebook was unwilling to remove a “cheapfake” altered video of her.

Yet neither side has apparently given much thought to what the internet and social media would look like if their reforms were implemented. Decrease moderation and platforms might get overrun by alt-right crazies and conspiracy theorists, such as those recently banned by Facebook. Or perhaps just the opposite: a tightly moderated garden where hardly a disruptive thought is expressed. Koseff would advise a social media company to “take a very hands-off approach to moderation because there is no way to predict in advance whether moderation decisions/policies are ‘neutral.'” But that path might be hard to stick to with powerful politicians regularly pressuring them to remove insulting content that’s not advocating illegal action.