"Section 230 helps make it possible for online communities to host user speech: from restaurant reviews, to fan fiction, to collaborative encyclopedias. But recent debates about the law often overlook how it works in practice. To mark its 30th anniversary, EFF is interviewing leaders of online platforms about how they handle complaints, moderate content, and protect their users' ability to speak and share information."
"A decade ago, Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, received 304 requests to alter or remove content over a two-year period, not including copyright complaints. In 2024 alone, it such takedown requests. Only four were granted. As complaints over user speech have grown, Wikimedia has expanded its legal team to defend the volunteer editors who write and maintain the encyclopedia."
"Jacob Rogers: When you're writing about a living person, if you get it wrong and it hurts their reputation, they will have a legal claim. So that is always a concentrated area of risk. It's good to be careful, but I think if there was a looser liability regime, people could get to be too careful-so careful they couldn't write important public information."
Section 230 makes it possible for online communities to host user speech ranging from restaurant reviews to collaborative encyclopedias. Online platforms face increasing complaints about user content, prompting interviews with platform leaders about moderation and legal defenses. Wikimedia Foundation received 304 requests to alter or remove content over two years a decade ago; in 2024 the volume of takedown requests increased, yet only four were granted. Wikimedia expanded its legal team to defend volunteer editors and preserve legal protections. Jacob Rogers leads legal responses to content complaints and warns that weaker liability would make editors overly cautious, endangering biographies, current events, and culturally sensitive historical material.
Read at Electronic Frontier Foundation
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