The Truth About Section 230
Uncanny Valley | WIRED7 Touko 2021

The Truth About Section 230

There's no way the lawmakers who drafted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act way back in 1996 could have known that it would go on to determine the role user-generated content would play in the explosive growth of the internet. Those Congressmen probably also wouldn’t have guessed that Section 230 would end up, 25 years later, becoming a central sticking point in the debate over free speech online. The complex history of CDA 230 is as full of as many twists and turns as there are differing interpretations of what the law actually says.

On this episode of Gadget Lab, WIRED senior politics reporter Gilad Edelman joins us yet again to talk about the particulars of Section 230. He’s the author of this month’s WIRED cover story on this very topic. We also talk about the Facebook Oversight Committee's ruling about the company’s decision to temporarily ban president Trump from the platform.

Show Notes:

Read Gilad’s cover story about Section 230 here. Read his story about the Facebook Oversight Committee’s decision here. Trump’s DIY Twitter feed is a thing that exists. Watch the video of Aeropress inventor Alan Adler here.

Recommendations:

Gilad recommends Aeropress. Mike recommends the Shop app. Lauren recommends the podcast How to Save a Planet.

Gilad Edelman can be found on Twitter @GiladEdelman. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

If you have feedback about the show, or just want to enter to win a $50 gift card, take our brief listener survey here.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Jaksot(428)

Andrew Yang on Micromobility

Andrew Yang on Micromobility

Description:Andrew Yang, former presidential and New York mayoral candidate, really likes to ride his electric scooter. He's been a big proponent of micromobility in general, among other grand ambitio...

8 Loka 202137min

Amazon Bots

Amazon Bots

About this time every year, Amazon announces a slew of new products. Some of them are fairly normal: new Echo devices, smart screens, video doorbells. But sometimes the company will roll out something...

1 Loka 202133min

Scratching the Surface

Scratching the Surface

It's product announcement season, and this week was Microsoft's turn. The company slid out a few new Surfaces, a weird flippy laptop thing, and an eco-friendlyish mouse that looks like a bar of soap. ...

24 Syys 202129min

iPhoning It In

iPhoning It In

It's September, which can only mean one thing: Apple's got some new products. This week, the company held a virtual event to detail its slate of upcoming iPhones, iPads, and smartwatches. Along with t...

17 Syys 202132min

Boosters and Mandates

Boosters and Mandates

On Thursday, President Biden announced a number of new policies to fight Covid-19. Chief among them: More vaccine mandates are coming. Now, businesses that employ over 100 workers will have to require...

10 Syys 202137min

Power Problems

Power Problems

This week, Hurricane Ida swept through the southern US, hitting Louisiana and parts of Mississippi especially hard. The storm disabled the power grid across Louisiana, including heavily populated area...

3 Syys 202128min

I Never Metaverse I Didn’t Like

I Never Metaverse I Didn’t Like

The metaverse. A simulated world, controlled with inputs from our reality to merge cyberspace and meatspace into one plane of existence. If this sounds like a sci-fi concept from the early ‘90s, that’...

27 Elo 202136min

Pixel Party

Pixel Party

By now, Google has gotten the hang of making solid affordable phones. Its new Pixel 5A has just about all the features most people need in a phone, and the company is selling the handsets for the dece...

20 Elo 202131min