Y’all keep an eye out for the Sunset Act.
This aims to repeal Section 230, which would greatly aid in ensuring stuff like this doesn’t see the light of day.
Edit: also, read what the EFF has to say: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/sunsetting-section-230-will-hurt-internet-users-not-big-tech They’re saying that legal liability would result in less moderation, which is counter-intuitive. While I agree, I still think that site operators will likely reach for the ban-hammer before relying on lawyers, especially if they don’t have deep pockets.
FAck. They were floating this during Trump’s first term too. I’m thankful it didn’t get far from Barr’s desk, but I knew it was always going to be in the crosshairs going forward.
I think the impact of this would be way bigger than people realize. Basically, it would kill if not cripple the Fediverse.
The problem is that without Section 230, site admins would need to aggressively censor and remove material that would get anyone in hot water. Anyone can come along and basically torpedo whatever forum site they want. The answer to that starts to look an awful lot like lots of AI, lots of paid site moderators, and eliminating anonymity to deter that kind of behavior. So, all this photo-id-age-validation going on out there? IMO, that’s companies aligning themselves to cover their collective asses before this goes through. If a site operator is on the hook for finding stuff like CSAM, cooperating with the government by handing over the real identity of the perpetrator would go a long way to get them off your back.
Also, all of those things are very hard to do for small site operators. It all costs real money to accomplish at even a modest scale. While the loss of Section 230 would be a huge step towards furthering mass online surveillance, it also “pulls the ladder up”, further entrenching large social media services and forums.
Since the text of this bill almost exclusively “strikes” sections of other, preexisting legislation, I can’t quite tell what it really does without trying to locate and read each of the other pieces of legislation. Does anyone have a quick summery of what effect this proposal would have if passed?
Answering my own question, it seems that “Sunset acts” are a common occurrence in legislation that end programs and activities that have more or less run their course or stopped being effective or meaningful.
The reason this Sunset Act is being mentioned is…
Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act was created to protect early internet platforms from lawsuits over user-generated content, a safeguard widely seen as essential to the internet’s development. As social media companies have become some of the nation’s most powerful and influential corporations, critics have questioned whether that protection should remain.
… so my understanding is that this Sunset will remove some outdated protections from social media platforms, effectively forcing them to adapt with better policies and practices or open themselves up to litigation.
“Outdated” is pretty debatable. The fear is that once platforms are legally liable for user posted content it will lead to an environment of censorship. Anything the federal government (or indeed private entities) don’t want talked about, they can simply tell social media companies to take down. Chances are the companies will comply because they don’t want to deal with the potential consequences of litigation.
The fuck you mean “outdated”? That prevision is not a “social media” thing, it’s a “any platform that hosts user generated content” thing.
It’s the only thing that even allows user generated content in the first place. It would effectively break any forum and even hosted chat applications because it would make the platform liable for anything their users do that breaks the law.
But it also adds a bit of protection from BS lawsuits. Considering the current administration has already sued platforms because of users exercising their first amendment this provision insures they don’t actually have a case.
And that’s related to all the platforms based in the US are currently getting strong armed to turn over personal information for any users that criticizes ICE.
That is why they want to get rid of that provision. They want to censor people. They want to isolate people. It’s why they forced the sale of TikTok so they could crack down on political news they didn’t like while promoting propaganda.
They want to get rid of these easy avenues of communication and information for the average person.
Don’t get me wrong. Facebook, twitter, and the like need to be regulated and broken up under antitrust, but getting rid of this provision is not going to do any of that. It’s just going to make them crack down on people’s freedom of speech even more while still allowing hate speech.
The PDF itself was slow to obtain, the server took a long ass time to load the PDF.
Show AI Summary
Based on the document provided, this bill—officially named the “Sunset Section 230 Act” (S. 3546)—is designed to completely repeal Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934.
Here is exactly what the legislation does:
Total Repeal: It permanently removes Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230) from federal law.
Delayed Implementation: The repeal is not immediate. The law includes a “sunset” delay, meaning the repeal will officially take effect exactly two years after the bill is enacted.
Conforming Amendments: The vast majority of the bill is legal housekeeping. Because Section 230 is referenced in many other federal laws, this bill goes through the U.S. Code—including the Trademark Act, the Controlled Substances Act, copyright law (Title 17), and criminal code (Title 18)—to strike out any cross-references to Section 230.
Definition Updates: It updates definitions in other laws that previously relied on Section 230. For example, it ensures that terms like “interactive computer service” and “Internet” are redefined or point to Section 223 of the Communications Act instead.
In short, it removes the foundational liability shield for internet platforms and gives a two-year runway for the change to take effect.
Y’all keep an eye out for the Sunset Act. This aims to repeal Section 230, which would greatly aid in ensuring stuff like this doesn’t see the light of day.
Edit: also, read what the EFF has to say: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/sunsetting-section-230-will-hurt-internet-users-not-big-tech They’re saying that legal liability would result in less moderation, which is counter-intuitive. While I agree, I still think that site operators will likely reach for the ban-hammer before relying on lawyers, especially if they don’t have deep pockets.
FAck. They were floating this during Trump’s first term too. I’m thankful it didn’t get far from Barr’s desk, but I knew it was always going to be in the crosshairs going forward.
I think the impact of this would be way bigger than people realize. Basically, it would kill if not cripple the Fediverse.
The problem is that without Section 230, site admins would need to aggressively censor and remove material that would get anyone in hot water. Anyone can come along and basically torpedo whatever forum site they want. The answer to that starts to look an awful lot like lots of AI, lots of paid site moderators, and eliminating anonymity to deter that kind of behavior. So, all this photo-id-age-validation going on out there? IMO, that’s companies aligning themselves to cover their collective asses before this goes through. If a site operator is on the hook for finding stuff like CSAM, cooperating with the government by handing over the real identity of the perpetrator would go a long way to get them off your back.
Also, all of those things are very hard to do for small site operators. It all costs real money to accomplish at even a modest scale. While the loss of Section 230 would be a huge step towards furthering mass online surveillance, it also “pulls the ladder up”, further entrenching large social media services and forums.
Motherfuckers.
Since the text of this bill almost exclusively “strikes” sections of other, preexisting legislation, I can’t quite tell what it really does without trying to locate and read each of the other pieces of legislation. Does anyone have a quick summery of what effect this proposal would have if passed?
Answering my own question, it seems that “Sunset acts” are a common occurrence in legislation that end programs and activities that have more or less run their course or stopped being effective or meaningful.
The reason this Sunset Act is being mentioned is…
… so my understanding is that this Sunset will remove some outdated protections from social media platforms, effectively forcing them to adapt with better policies and practices or open themselves up to litigation.
“Outdated” is pretty debatable. The fear is that once platforms are legally liable for user posted content it will lead to an environment of censorship. Anything the federal government (or indeed private entities) don’t want talked about, they can simply tell social media companies to take down. Chances are the companies will comply because they don’t want to deal with the potential consequences of litigation.
The fuck you mean “outdated”? That prevision is not a “social media” thing, it’s a “any platform that hosts user generated content” thing.
It’s the only thing that even allows user generated content in the first place. It would effectively break any forum and even hosted chat applications because it would make the platform liable for anything their users do that breaks the law.
But it also adds a bit of protection from BS lawsuits. Considering the current administration has already sued platforms because of users exercising their first amendment this provision insures they don’t actually have a case.
And that’s related to all the platforms based in the US are currently getting strong armed to turn over personal information for any users that criticizes ICE.
That is why they want to get rid of that provision. They want to censor people. They want to isolate people. It’s why they forced the sale of TikTok so they could crack down on political news they didn’t like while promoting propaganda.
They want to get rid of these easy avenues of communication and information for the average person.
Don’t get me wrong. Facebook, twitter, and the like need to be regulated and broken up under antitrust, but getting rid of this provision is not going to do any of that. It’s just going to make them crack down on people’s freedom of speech even more while still allowing hate speech.
It’s the “Oops, Everything Is Facebook Now” Act. Squeezing out competition through threats of litigation.
I uploaded the PDF into Gemini 3 pro
The PDF itself was slow to obtain, the server took a long ass time to load the PDF.
Show AI Summary
Based on the document provided, this bill—officially named the “Sunset Section 230 Act” (S. 3546)—is designed to completely repeal Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934.
Here is exactly what the legislation does:
Total Repeal: It permanently removes Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230) from federal law.
Delayed Implementation: The repeal is not immediate. The law includes a “sunset” delay, meaning the repeal will officially take effect exactly two years after the bill is enacted.
Conforming Amendments: The vast majority of the bill is legal housekeeping. Because Section 230 is referenced in many other federal laws, this bill goes through the U.S. Code—including the Trademark Act, the Controlled Substances Act, copyright law (Title 17), and criminal code (Title 18)—to strike out any cross-references to Section 230.
Definition Updates: It updates definitions in other laws that previously relied on Section 230. For example, it ensures that terms like “interactive computer service” and “Internet” are redefined or point to Section 223 of the Communications Act instead.
In short, it removes the foundational liability shield for internet platforms and gives a two-year runway for the change to take effect.