Section 230 is not a special privilege for big tech, it enables third party participation in communication that even big tech, with its deep pockets, wouldn't risk liability to host, let alone smaller platforms, which couldn't afford one lawsuit.

Section 230 also doesn't encourage platforms to have no community guidelines, with a wild west of social media, but the opposite. It helped correct the liability of a platform, so that it could moderate content, such as hate speech, without being considered a publisher. Therefore, it doesn't require the platform, big or small, to have a totally hands-off approach in order to be defensible against liability.

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Some reading:

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/05/13/bipartisan-bill-to-repeal-section-230-defended-in-facts-optional-op-ed/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/wanna-make-big-tech-monopolies-even-worse-kill-section-230

Music:

Airglow - Spliff and Wesson (CC BY 4.0)

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