Don’t Blame Section 230 for Big Tech’s Failures. Blame Big Tech.

Next time you hear someone blame Section 230 for a problem with social media platforms, ask yourself two questions: first, was this problem actually caused by Section 230? Second, would weakening Section 230 solve the problem? Politicians and commentators on both sides of the aisle frequently blame Section 230 for big tech companies’ failures, but their reform proposals wouldn’t actually address the problems they attribute to Big Tech. If lawmakers are concerned about large social media platforms’ outsized influence on the world of online speech, they ought to confront the lack of meaningful competition among those platforms and the ways in which those platforms fail to let users control or even see how they’re using our data. Undermining Section 230 won’t fix Twitter and Facebook; in fact, it risks making matters worse by further insulating big players from competition and disruption.

While large tech companies might clamor for regulations that would hamstring their competitors, they’re notably silent on reforms that would curb the practices that allow them to dominate the Internet today.

Section 230 says that if you break the law online, you should be the one held responsible, not the website, app, or forum where you said it. Similarly, if you forward an email or even retweet a tweet, you’re protected by Section 230 in the event that that material is found unlawful. It has some exceptions—most notably, that it doesn’t shield platforms from liability under federal criminal law—but at its heart, Section 230 is just common sense: you should be held responsible for your speech online, not the platform that hosted your speech or another party.

Without Section 230, the Internet would be a very different place, one with fewer spaces where we’re all free to speak out and share our opinions. Social media wouldn’t exist—at least in its current form—and neither would important educational and cultural platforms like Wikipedia and the Internet Archive. The legal risk associated with operating such a service would deter any entrepreneur from starting one, let alone a nonprofit.

As commentators of all political stripes have targeted large Internet companies with their ire, it’s become fashionable to blame Section 230 for those companies’ failings. But Section 230 isn’t why five companies dominate the market for speech online, or why the marketing and behavior analysis decisions that guide Big Tech’s practices are so often opaque to users.

The Problem with Social Media Isn’t Politics; It’s Power

A recent Congressional hearing with the heads of Facebook, Twitter, and Google demonstrated the highly politicized nature of today’s criticisms of Big Tech. Republicans scolded the companies for “censoring” and fact-checking conservative speakers while Democrats demanded that they do more to curb misleading and harmful statements.

There’s a nugget of truth in both parties’ criticisms: it’s a problem that just a few tech companies wield immense control over what speakers and messages are allowed online. It’s a problem that those same companies fail to enforce their own policies consistently or offer users meaningful opportunity to appeal bad moderation decisions. There’s little hope of a competitor with fairer speech moderation practices taking hold given the big players’ practice of acquiring would-be competitors before they can ever threaten the status quo.

Unfortunately, trying to legislate that platforms moderate “neutrally” would create immense legal risk for any new social media platform—raising, rather than lowering, the barrier to entry for new platforms. Can a platform filter out spam while still maintaining its “neutrality”? What if that spam has a political message? Twitter and Facebook would have the large legal budgets and financial cushions to litigate those questions, but smaller platforms wouldn’t.

We shouldn’t be surprised that Facebook has joined Section 230’s critics: it literally has the most to gain from decimating the law.

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