Skip to main content
Thursday, October 29, 2026Oct 29

This story is free to read.

Perspective: Should Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act be repealed?

America blur flag backdrop, two cable microphones in front. Political, business concept. 3d illustration presidential debate tile election tile / Getty Images
America blur flag backdrop, two cable microphones in front. Political, business concept. 3d illustration presidential debate tile election tile / Getty Images America blur flag backdrop, two cable microphones in front. Political, business concept. 3d illustration presidential debate tile election tile / Getty Images

YES: Biden should revoke Section 230 before we lose our democracy

By Steven Hill

The mob attack on the U.S. Capitol was incited and planned over Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other digital media platforms, with a tragic nudge from the president of the United States. The gripping presence of gunshots and cowering lawmakers inside the People’s House is a warning to us all. How did we arrive here?

Since the birth of the Big Tech media platforms 15 years ago, democracies around the world have been subjected to a grand experiment: Can a nation’s news and information infrastructure, which is the lifeblood of any democracy, be dependent on digital technologies that allow a global free speech zone of unlimited audience size, combined with algorithmic (nonhuman) curation of massive volumes of mis/disinformation, that can be spread with unprecedented ease and reach?

The evidence has become frighteningly clear that this experiment has veered off course, like a Frankenstein monster marauding across the landscape.