A primer on Section 230 and Trump’s executive order

By Jess Miers

With a fact-check heard round the web, Twitter did what their “big tech” counterparts have been too afraid to do: hold the president of the United States accountable for his actions. Following the momentous decision to highlight Trump’s false claims about mail-in ballots, the president—and his frenzied fan-base—unleashed a fury of tech-lash. Their target is a cyber law from 1996, credited with creating the modern-day internet, and broadly known as Section 230.

Core to 47 U.S.C. Section 230 is the basic principle that websites are not liable for third-party, user generated content. To many, this principle is understandably