Reform Section 230

Social media companies have largely been immunized from scrutiny because of a law that was passed in 1996—when just 16% of Americans had access to the internet via a computer tethered to a phone cord. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube didn’t yet exist, and Amazon was an online bookseller.

Today, more than half of the world’s population uses social media, and though this expansion has produced enormous stakeholder value, the externalities have grown faster than the revenue. Social media users are exposed to algorithms of enragement—fostering an ecosystem of contempt, partisanship, and polarization. Our teens are depressed and suffering from device addiction.

Social media companies no longer need special treatment. They now have the resources and reach to play by the same rules as every other media company—rules that make the penalty and likelihood of being caught greater than the upside of ransacking democracy. These rules justly shift the cost of externalities from the commonwealth to the companies that create them.

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A Timeline of Social Media Companies Since Section 230’s Passage

Source: Prof G analysis.