We Interrupt This Misinformation Nightmare to Eat a Bird

Well, it’s late November, and you know what that means: Discounts on electronics so deep, people will be murdering each other at Best Buy just to make sure they’re first in line to take advantage of bargain priced flat-screen TVs.

In the U.S. this year, November also marked our latest Presidential election, which was won by Donald Trump in an absolute landslide – unless you go by actual the vote counts as tallied by the individual states, that is, which seem stubbornly determined to award Trump’s overwhelming victory to Joe Biden. (Personally, I think the only fair way to resolve this dispute is to follow the scoring protocols of Trump’s favorite game, golf, which would mean we award the election to the candidate who received the fewest votes – which would mean some very exciting news for either Kanye West or Don Blankenship.)

The fourth Thursday of November marks another annual tradition in the U.S., of course: Football games played by the Dallas Cowboys, the Detroit Lions and a handful of other teams who must have done something to piss off NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

And, lest I forget, today is also Thanksgiving, a holiday we mark here in America by eating a large bird, along with bread that has been stuffed inside that bird, probably some mashed potatoes, maybe a handful of peas and some manner of purple substance that is allegedly made from cranberries and reliably retains the shape of the cans in which it is purchased.

The best part of Thanksgiving this year, of course, is that we have been spared the prospect of sharing it with family members we can’t stand, thanks to the pandemic. To be clear, I still intend to see a few family members today – but the pandemic is a terrific excuse to avoid my more Jesusy relatives, who always insist on muttering their unyielding praise of the Lord for several minutes before they’re willing to pass me the goddam gravy.

A smaller than usual crowd at the table isn’t the only thing I’m thankful for this year, of course. I’m also thankful that we have legislators at every level of government in this country who devote their time and energy to important efforts – like the effort to fundamentally misrepresent Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, for example.

As noted in the Wired piece linked above, at the Senate’s recent hearings on Section 230 – a hearing titled “Breaking the News: Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election” – Senator Ted Cruz took the lead in boldly babbling bullshit and mouthing misinformation about the much maligned, oft misunderstood ‘safe harbor’ created by Section 230.

“Senator Ted Cruz badgered (Twitter’s Jack) Dorsey about Twitter’s decision to add labels pushing back against claims of voter fraud. ‘You’re a publisher when you’re doing that,’ he barked. ‘You’re entitled to take a policy position, but you don’t get to pretend you’re not a publisher and get a special benefit under Section 230 as a result.’”

There’s just one small problem with what Cruz said there: It’s utter nonsense that has nothing whatsoever to do with what Section 230 actually says, or how it works when applied in court.

I could sit here and write out a long, detailed post about Section 230 – but the truth is, I’d probably get plenty wrong, myself. So, rather than accidentally contribute to the wealth of misinformation available online about Section 230, let me just point you to Eric Goldman’s writings on the subject. Why Goldman? There’s probably no lawyer or legal scholar who has written more extensively about Section 230 or covered the development of case law more closely over the years since the CDA was passed.

This assumes, of course, that you’re interested in knowing how Section 230 actually works, which most people aren’t, whatever they might claim to the contrary. It seems to me most people are only interested in Section 230 to the extent they can use it to demonize “Big Tech” or to decry the bias of social media platforms, or… well, whatever the fuck this person was trying to say Section 230 can be used to do:

Yea hit 'em right in the 230