A New Compromise Repeal of Section 230

#383: Nurturing Local Creative Types

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Dean Baker, at Center For Economic And Policy Research, has been blogging and tweeting about his proposal that would both counter the current decline in local journalism, as well as rein in 'bad actors' posting disinformation and slander on social media.  Its net effect would be to help little guy creatives at the local level.

We start with the founding fathers, who, when creating the US Post Office, established a subsidized postal rate for newspapers.  This was because citizens, in order to vote wisely, needed to know the truth about their government.

Fast forward to 2022, and that link between citizens and their local government is disappearing.  Most newspapers are much less profitable than before the arrival of Google, Facebook and the like--all of which yanked away advertising revenue while distracting readers with a universe of diverse entertainment.  Unprofitable newspapers have folded, or been turned into bland shadows of their former selves.

In the meantime, social media corporations like Facebook have been shielded from having to aggressively clean up the falsehoods and slander that appear on their pages.  This shield is referred to as Section 230, and recently there've been calls for its repeal, meaning that Facebook, for example, could be sued if it didn't remove offending content, once notified.

The debate over whether to repeal Section 230 has mostly concerned whether Facebook (now, along with Instagram, etc., a part of Meta) and other social media companies could survive, and what repeal would do to our ability to enjoy them.

Enter Baker's plan that would remove Section 230's shield for sites that accept paid advertisements or sell customer information.  This would be coupled with a tax credit for all citizens to assign, as they see fit, to one or more enterprise headquartered locally and addressing that local audience.  This would have the effect of not only encouraging local news outlets, but of also cultivating local creative businesses and individuals.

Baker discusses the pluses and minuses involved in his proposal, most of which point to its being feasible.  I won't dwell any longer on his ideas except to say that an 'outside in' approach is inherently harder to pull off than is an 'inside out' change like the one I've proposed, that Meta could implement on its own.  But, Baker's package would accomplish much more, since it would take on more than a single social media platform.