In 1995, Prodigy , an internet company of the pre-Google and Facebook era, was sued for $200 million. The complaint by Stratton Oakmont, an investment firm, was simple — Prodigy accepted user comments. It even moderated it and decided which comments would be published and which would be discarded. So, if Prodigy chose to publish a defamatory and scandalous comment by a user that wasn’t backed by facts, then that’s Prodigy’s fault. (View Highlight)
And a court in New York agreed. They said, “Look, if you’re moderating content from your users, you’re an editor and a publisher. Just like a newspaper. And if a newspaper can be sued, so can you. If you don’t moderate anything, then that’s fine. You won’t be sued.” (View Highlight)
they decided to tweak the law and introduce Section 230. With just 26 words in 1996 , the internet changed forever.
“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” (View Highlight)
