The media keeps mischaracterizing Section 230 as "legal protections for tech companies".

NO.

Section 230 protects YOUR free speech. That's why Trump wants to kill it.

Read on, if you don't know how this works.

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The First Amendment only prevents the government from controlling what you say.

In contrast, private companies can decide what appears on their websites. Because they're not the government.

This means social media companies have the right to censor anything they want to.

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See, social media companies are private corporations. They can control anything that appears on their platforms.

Normally, they don't want to control what anyone says, because the more freewheeling they are, the more users they have, and the more revenue they can acquire.

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BUT, suppose some group--maybe Republicans for a Fascist Future--sues Twitter for allowing Democrats to say non-fascist things.

That could force Twitter to drop all non-fascists.

You can't sue them for dropping you, because they have the right to censor whatever they want.

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Enter Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It says social media companies aren't liable for something a user says on their platform.

That means Twitter can't be sued if non-fascists have Twitter accounts. We can even say non-flattering things here about fascists.

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In the same way, Wordpress isn't liable for your blog, and can't be sued if someone doesn't like it.

Trump can't sue Twitter for putting flags on his tweets.

He can't sue Twitter if YOU say Trump is a fucking liar and a racist asshole.

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Sure, this protects media companies from lawsuits. But that means media companies have no incentive to block you from saying whateverthefuck you want to say.

This is why Trump doesn't like Section 230. It protects YOUR right to free speech.

Fascists HATE free speech.

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