Want to Learn More About Section 230? A Guide to My Work

I’ve written a lot on Section 230 over the years. I thought it might be helpful to provide a narrated and highly selective bibliography:

 

The Basics

 

• An Overview of the United States’ Section 230 Internet Immunity. This is the one-stop and relatively short primer you’ve been looking for. If you want to save even more time, skip the International comparisons.
   
• Why Section 230 Is Better Than the First Amendment. This relatively short essay explains the interaction between Section 230 and the First Amendment.
   
• Top Myths of Content Moderation. A short explainer of content moderation.
   
• Want to Kill Facebook and Google? Preserving Section 230 Is Your Best Hope. A short essay explaining Section 230’s pro-competitive benefits.
   

Dig Deeper–Policy Considerations

 

• Liability for User-Generated Content Online: Principles for Lawmakers. July 2019 statement of 53 academics and 28 organizations.
   
• Letter to Congress on Section 230’s benefits. March 2020 letter on behalf of 46 academics.
   
• Why Internet Companies Can’t Stop Awful Content. A short essay arguing that we should let go of the fiction that regulation can achieve a perfect outcome.
   
• Expert Report on the Value of Consumer Review Websites and 47 USC 230. A short report on Section 230’s critical role in enabling consumer review websites.
   
• Internet Immunity and the Freedom to Code. A short essay explaining how Section 230 reform could limit the freedom of software developers.
   

Dig Deeper–Specific Revisions

 

• The Complicated Story of FOSTA and Section 230. FOSTA is a major cautionary tale of how Congress can hurt many communities with an ill-conceived amendment to Section 230. Will Congress learn the lessons that FOSTA teaches?
   
• The Implications of Excluding State Crimes from 47 U.S.C. § 230’s Immunity. Section 230 does not apply to federal prosecutions but does apply to state prosecutions. This essay explains why that incongruity actually makes sense. I wrote this in 2013 but the issue is still coming up in 2020.
   
• February 2020 interview with Mathew Ingram critiquing various reform arguments.
   

Dig Deeper–Section 230 History

 

• The Ten Most Important Section 230 Rulings. Who doesn’t love listicles about Section 230?
   
• Who Cyber-Attacked Ken Zeran, and Why? Exploring the greatest unsolved mystery in Internet Law.
   
• Online User Account Termination and 47 U.S.C. §230(c)(2). An older article rounding up the 230(c)(2) jurisprudence.
   

The preceding is republished on TAP with permission by its author, Professor Eric Goldman, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Santa Clara High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. “Want to Learn More About Section 230? A Guide to My Work” was originally published July 1, 2020 in the Technology & Marketing Law Blog.