US Senator moves to file Section 230 repeal: What is the law? How will a ban affect your free speech on the internet?

According to this article

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Friday said that he was moving to file a bipartisan bill to repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, provides limited federal immunity to providers and users of interactive computer service, according to the US Congress website.

It generally provides immunity for online computer services with respect to third-party content generated by their users.

This provides immunity to platforms like Facebook, TikTok, X, ad Instagram from content posted by its users, essentially making free speech online.

The law has been applied to protect social media companies from lawsuits based on their decisions to transmit or take down user-generated content.

Experts argue that a repeal of Section 230 could kill free speech on the internet.

As the Legal Clarity website says

Without Section 230, many smaller platforms might be forced to shut down or never launch due to the overwhelming legal and financial burdens of defending against lawsuits or implementing extensive content moderation. This would create a significant barrier to entry for new companies, stifling innovation and competition in the online space. The result could be further consolidation of online power among a few large companies that can afford the increased legal and operational costs, limiting the diversity of online services available to users.

The EFF warns

The free and open internet as we know it couldn’t exist without Section 230.

More information in this article in The Conversation: What would happen if Section 230 went away? A legal expert explains the consequences of repealing ‘the law that built the internet’

I worry how this will affect end-to-end encryption (for instance Signal is US based), VPNs, Tor relays, other privacy-focused services hosted on US servers, etc. Would compliance after repeal of section 230 require those operators to deanonymize their users or undermine their encryption?

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According to this article

The link doesn’t lead to anywhere.

This bill has has very small chances to go anywhere.

I worry about small forums, like this place.

Hopefully it does now.

Hopefully it won’t!