Section 230 is a little law that basically just reasserts the First Amendment applies to online discussions, too. Really, it isn’t even all that necessary as courts would likely find the First Amendment sufficient for most frivolous claims people might try to bring against online platforms for comments made by third parties on them.
The reason for it is merely because our court system is trash. It’s way too easy to bring frivolous lawsuits against others, which means companies would have to waste vast amounts of resources defending themselves against junk. Big companies could withstand those costs, smaller ones could not – meaning without Section 230, we would see two things.
One, far fewer online competitors. And two, companies choosing to moderate content very aggressively to prevent any chance of a lawsuit. Ultimately, that means it would be much harder for individuals and smaller companies to get their content seen on online platforms.
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