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Re:Should Facebook, Google be liable for user posts? asks U.... by manfredo on Thursday February 20, 2020 @06:29PM (#22379605)
Small sites would be absolutely devastated because the threat of being held liable for user comments will be way too large of a risk. Small networks don't have the resources to pre-moderate comments or build sophisticated automated systems of identifying high risk content. How many people would host their own site when the consequences of user-submitted illegal content being posted could mean millions in liability? Very few, if any. The result is that large players are the only ones that can survive in a market where companies are held liable for user submitted content.

Maybe if by "small" you're talking about dozens of people. But I fail to see how comparably small sites like Hacker News could continue to exist without section 230 protections. It'd probably take fundamental changes like charging users a subscription in order to pay for enough moderators to pre-moderate comments and submissions and I am unsure if that's even a viable approach.

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