"Brian Reed's " Question Everything " podcast built its reputation on careful journalism that explores moral complexity within the journalism field. It's one of my favorite podcasts. Which makes his latest pivot so infuriating: Reed has announced he's now advocating to repeal Section 230-while demonstrating he fundamentally misunderstands what the law does, how it works, and what repealing it would accomplish. If you've read Techdirt for basically any length of time, you'll know that I feel the exact opposite on this topic."
"The problem isn't advocacy journalism-I've been doing that myself for years. The problem is Reed's approach: decide on a solution, then cherry-pick emotional anecdotes and misleading sources to support it, while ignoring the legal experts who could explain why he's wrong. It's the exact opposite of how to do good journalism, which is unfortunate for someone who holds out his (otherwise excellent!) podcast as a place to explore how to do journalism well."
"Last week, he published the first episode of his "get rid of 230" series, and it has so many problems, mistakes, and nonsense, that I feel like I had to write about it now, in the hopes that Brian might be more careful in future pieces. (Reed has said he plans to interview critics of his position, including me, but only after the series gets going-which seems backwards for someone advocating major legal changes.)"
A recent advocacy push seeks repeal of Section 230 using emotional anecdotes about conspiracy theories and personal stories. The advocacy rests on selective examples and misleading sources rather than robust legal analysis. Repealing or broadly reforming Section 230 would remove intermediary liability protections that support platform hosting, sharing, and amplification of content. Such removal would likely restrict online speech, harm journalists and independent creators, and disadvantage smaller platforms. Effective policy responses require legal expertise, careful evidence, and consideration of trade-offs between reducing harmful content and preserving an open internet and public-interest journalism.
Read at Above the Law
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