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Home/Magazine Archive/April 2023 (Vol. 66, No. 4)/Improving Section 230, Preserving Democracy, and Protecting.../Abstract

Economic and Business Dimensions

Improving Section 230, Preserving Democracy, and Protecting Free Speech

By Marshall Van Alstyne, Michael D. Smith, Herbert Lin
Communications of the ACM, April 2023, Vol. 66 No. 4, Pages 26-28
10.1145/3584710
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multicolor beam pierces a ring of text stating 'Section 230', illustration — Credit: Andrij Borys Associates, Shutterstock

Misinformation and disinformation spread on social media have been implicated in lynching, vaccine hesitancy, polarization, insurrection, genocide, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, teenage depression, cancer misinformation, and the belief that a sitting president stole an election.^a

The prevalence of misinformation and disinformation in online social media challenges the traditional U.S. view that in a market of many ideas, the best ones win: "The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true."^b

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