PornHub’s Video Purge Previews a Novel Post-Section 230 Internet

In 2020, there’s no law so fundamentally misunderstood as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the controversial big tech provision being sniped at from all political sides of Capitol Hill. Passed in 1996 during the dawn of the internet, this law protects any “interactive computer service” from being treated as the publisher or speaker of third-party content, such as when users violate copyright, provide sex-work and violate federal criminal law.

To put it simply, the law tries to hold the individual criminals responsible for their own crimes, shielding the establishments and their owners from being targeted unfairly. What does this mean? If we imagine a popular highway was used as the key gateway route of a robbery, an illegal activity conducted through abusing an opportune thruway, should the owners of the highway and the robbers be treated as legally inseparable? Even if they were simply the unwitting accomplice whose existence was the key to success? What if they profited from the robbers’ toll booth fees? And who is expected to repay the debt? The ones holding the guns? Or whichever state or company involved has the biggest wallet?

If the highways of physical transport were held to this legal standard, turning all travelers into their effective representatives, would it be any surprise if they…