Jessica Melugin of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes about how Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter might change some conservatives’ views on Section 230:
The law has also become a lightning rod for both political parties’ frustrations over content moderation. Democrats complain that because Section 230 shields platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube from litigation over controversial content, those corporations aren’t aggressive enough in policing misinformation. Republicans complain that the law protects platforms that remove conservative content for political reasons. This has produced dozens of bills, authored by politicians from both sides of the aisle, to curtail, condition or repeal Section 230.
But Musk-cheering conservatives need to reconsider Section 230 in light of a more sympathetic social-media mogul taking the helm at one of the big boys. This law is what allows social-media companies to leave up third-party content without fear of being sued. Like a male lead in a John Hughes movie, Republicans will soon see the beauty in what they’ve so far mostly derided.
Read the whole thing here.