Last night, Trump threatened to veto the NDAA (massive regularly occurring spending bill) if it didn't include a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Section 230 is important to forums because it means you aren't held legally accountable for what someone else says on your website. Even if you have rules in place on your form, it doesn't mean that questionable content won't slip through the cracks. As we know, moderation is not always perfect and often relies on user reports. What if you don't see something for days or at all because it got buried by other content? The forum owner could be held legally accountable. Forums who have less strict rules and encourage free speech are even more threatened.
Threatening to veto the NDAA is a big deal because it's effectively the same as threatening to shut down part of the government (at least this is how the media refers to this type of thing).
The reason President Trump is mad about Section 230 is because he believes website likes Twitter are unfair to him and he wants the government to intervene. However, even if you don't care about big social media sites like Twitter, changing the law affects everyone, even small forums.
To make matters worse, this isn't the only bad thing for forums that politicians are trying to force into the NDAA. Another piece threatens to censor the internet through copyright legislation: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...eform-bill-into-must-pass-spending-bill.shtml
Edit: I should add that this probably wouldn't affect forums hosted and operated outside of the US.
Section 230 is important to forums because it means you aren't held legally accountable for what someone else says on your website. Even if you have rules in place on your form, it doesn't mean that questionable content won't slip through the cracks. As we know, moderation is not always perfect and often relies on user reports. What if you don't see something for days or at all because it got buried by other content? The forum owner could be held legally accountable. Forums who have less strict rules and encourage free speech are even more threatened.
Threatening to veto the NDAA is a big deal because it's effectively the same as threatening to shut down part of the government (at least this is how the media refers to this type of thing).
The reason President Trump is mad about Section 230 is because he believes website likes Twitter are unfair to him and he wants the government to intervene. However, even if you don't care about big social media sites like Twitter, changing the law affects everyone, even small forums.
To make matters worse, this isn't the only bad thing for forums that politicians are trying to force into the NDAA. Another piece threatens to censor the internet through copyright legislation: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...eform-bill-into-must-pass-spending-bill.shtml
Edit: I should add that this probably wouldn't affect forums hosted and operated outside of the US.
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