Remember the internet in the 1990s? No social media, no video-sharing, no encrypted chats. It was early days enthusiasm, the wonder of sending messages across the world, chatting with strangers on ICQ, early online games… ah, nostalgia! Back then we used to think everybody on the internet was nice people and we acted on that assumption. Information wanted to be free and so did we (never mind the second half of that Stewart Brand-quote “at the same time information wants to be expensive”).
If you thought the evolution of the internet was driven by technology, think again. More than anything, the internet as we know it has been decided by law, more specifically a US law known as the Communications Decency Act Paragraph 230 a k a CDA 230. It is the famous paragraph that stipulates that intermediaries should have no liability for what users do on the internet. Think about it: neutral platforms. Network neutrality. Principles of non-interference. Makes sense for roads so why not expand it to all kinds of services? Remember “The internet is just like the post-office”? (except the post has lots of rules of what can be sent in the mail and not, including when it should open letters)
It is fair to say that much of the regulation and compliance requirements that have been brought in the last decade – Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, different flavours of national regulation and so on – comes from the need to mitigate or reverse the effects of CDA 230.
What does this have to do with anything? Last month the famous paragraph turned 30! Netopia celebrates by posting a review of a book from a few years ago on CDA 230.
