Trump and 230

This just out. Trump used Twitter to claim he will veto military funding unless Congress revokes Section 230. You don’t have to be a techie to appreciate the irony. Section 230 allows social media hosts cover from responsibility for the content users create. In other words, such providers are not considered publishers. Such providers are also allowed some freedom to act in good faith to control content the company feels is inappropriate for users. This is a tricky issue. For example, small and free, open source efforts would have to shut down rather than risk law suits larger and older companies might be willing to take on. For example, I would probably disable comments on my blogs rather than accept liability for moderation. Section 230 has been responsible for in large measure for the economic engine the Internet has become. My solution would be to require authenticated accounts so that an individual posting anything can be identified. This would be a challenge (think the process and cost of acquiring a passport) and ignores issues of retribution that anonymity limits. Maybe this is just another poorly thought through Trump threat. Twitter obviously did not prevent the threat from being circulated which does indicate that personal responsibility is not sufficient to assure productive use of the Internet.