Social Media and its Section 230 protection may have met its Waterloo. For most of the two-plus decades we've been using social media like X (nee Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others, they've operated under protections designed 25 years ago primarily to shield platforms like Compuserve and AOL.
Those protections, which are part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, said that online computer services couldn't be held liable for content posted on their platforms by third parties. These services were like dumb, vast warehouses with shelves of information placed there by others. A warehouse doesn't create what's inside, it just accepts the content and gives consumers access.
