is now holding back AI datacenter growth which is starving standard buisness growth.

This is why I got a Sony tv in 2020 and have not connected it to the internet. Worth the price differential.

Still, what I really want is a decent 65" display; no speakers, no OS, just a bright colorful screen with quick refresh.

230 prevents sites from being prosecuted. So, right now, they do b all moderation of any kind (except to eliminate speech for the other side).

Remove 230 and sites become liable for most of the abuses. Those sites don't have anything like the pockets of those abusing them. The sites have two options - risk a lot of lawsuits (as they're softer targets) or become "private" (which avoids any liability as nobody who would be bothered would be bothered spending money on them). Both of these deal with the issue - the first by getting rid of the abusers, the second by getting rid of the easily-swayed.

USENET predates 230.
Slashdot predates 230.
Hell, back then we also had Kuro5hin and Technocrat.

Post-230, we have X and Facebook trying to out-extreme each other, rampant fraud, corruption on an unimaginable scale, etc etc.

What has 230 ever done for us? (And I'm pretty sure we already had roads and aqueducts...)

I'd disagree.

Multiple examples of fraudulent coercion in elections, multiple examples of American plutocrats attempting to trigger armed insurrections in European nations, multiple "free speech" spaces that are "free speech" only if you're on the side that they support, and multiple suicides from cyberharassment, doxing, and swatting, along with a few murder-by-swatting events.

But very very very little evidence of any actual benefits. With a SNR that would look great on a punk album but is terrible for actually trying to get anything done, there is absolutely no meaningful evidence anyone has actually benefitted. Hell, take Slashdot. Has SNR gone up or down since this law? Slashdot is a lot older than 230 and I can tell you for a fact that SNR has dropped. That is NOT a benefit.

I said it when the left was in power and trying to censor the right, and now I'm still saying it. Freedom of speech is paramount. It is the primary mechanism by which truth is contested, refined, and occasionally discovered. No authority, left or right, well-intentioned, or evil is reliably capable of distinguishing true ideas from false ones in advance. Or at all, often enough. History is littered with doctrines once deemed dangerous or heretical that later proved correct, and with orthodoxies that collapsed under scrutiny. By protecting speech broadly society preserves the feedback loops that allow error correction. This is true regardless of the political aims or claimed political aims of the group attempting suppression. Free speech is a matter of individual dignity and moral agency. To speak is to participate as a reasoning adult rather than as a managed subject. When people are allowed to articulate beliefs, argue, persuade, and dissent, they are treated as responsible actors capable of judgment. This openness reduces the pressure toward violence and extremism by providing lawful outlets for grievance and reform.

On the internet, these principles become even more important. Online platforms function as the modern public square, mediating discourse at a scale no prior medium approached. Section 230 recognizes this reality by drawing a crucial distinction: platforms are not the speakers of user-generated content, and they should not be legally punished for hosting lawful expression. Without it, platforms would be forced into extreme over-censorship or simply cease to host open discussion at all, chilling speech through liability fear rather than democratic choice. I say repeal section 230 and replace it with something MORE potent.

I wish I could say I'm surprised.

However, this has been a consistent pattern that goes back to the 1930s and I wouldn't raise an eyebrow if you corected that to the 1830s. Companies know that you make the most money by selling to both sides.

Now who can argue with that? - I think we're all indebted to Gabby Johnson for clearly stating what needed to be said. - I'm particularly glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. - Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age!

This will be great for Haiku, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD installs, there's not the remotest possibility there'll be binaries for these. Not because the software couldn't be ported, but because the sorts of people politicians hire to write software would never be able to figure out the installer.

Junior Exec flying out a high-rise window.

So much for Michigan.

Disco sucks.

The browser AI slopper tool, I mean.

(Oh, not the music. The beat and grooves are actually quite good and seem to have a rythmic affect on– wait, what are my shoulders doing? Oh dang, there goes the hips. And yeah, now the feet are mov– Whoops, a spin. I haven't moved like this since 6th grade gym class in 1978!)