Page 25 - Issue 18

developments that came out of public institutions.
Facebook’s business model relies entirely on a section of
special legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996 –
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This
concise section, otherwise known as “the 26 words that
changed the Internet,” basically says that companies like
Facebook are not legally liable for the content they
present to the public.

The implication is quite stark: If Facebook would have
been deemed responsible for all the content posted on its
network, at its inception it would have had to recruit
dozens of workers to screen this content to avoid all kinds
of lawsuits. By its second year, it would have needed
hundreds of such screeners, by the third year this would
have required thousands of workers, by the fifth year –
tens of thousands, and by its 15th year, hundreds of
thousands. In other words, from the very beginning, had
the government not decided to pass special legislation
exempting companies of this type from responsibility for
the content their algorithm chooses to present, Facebook
would not have had a sustainable business model. Unlike
communications companies that came before it, Facebook
is very deliberate about the content it spreads: Its
algorithm targets the individual user and selects very
specific information and advertising based on thousands of
pieces of information about the user and his personal
preferences collected over time.

In need of a New Deal

In economic terms, Section 230, which gives Facebook
protection from being sued over the content it presents, is