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Decentralization and What Section 230 Really Means for Freedom of Speech

With U.S. President Donald Trump clashing with social media behemoth Twitter, what does the fight over “Section 230” really mean and can decentralization offer a better solution?

By Adam B. Levine, Michael J. Casey, Benjamin Powers

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:48 a.m. Published Jun 4, 2020, 4:43 p.m.

Markus Spiske, Ian Tuck/Unsplash, Andrew Cline/shutterstock.com, Headshots: Amy James, Nadine Strossen, Ben Powers, Michael Casey, Adam B. Levine

With U.S. President Donald Trump clashing with social media behemoth Twitter, what does the fight over “Section 230” really mean and can decentralization offer a better solution?

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This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Ciphertrace.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last Thursday, seeking to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 prevents social media companies from civil liability for the content posted on them. The order targets Twitter and Facebook after Twitter fact-checked two of the President’s tweets.

Today, CoinDesk tackles the topic with Chief Content Officer Michael Casey, privacy reporter Benjamin Powers, New York Law School professor and past president of the American Civil Liberties Union Nadine Strossen and Amy James, author of the Open Index Protocol.

On this podcast, the CoinDesk team brings listeners up to speed on the leadup to and aftermath of the executive order, and discusses the fairness implications of editorializing on social media, the business models that enable and are empowered by all of this and how decentralized protocols can chart an alternative path forward.

First, we talk about the First Amendment and Section 230 itself, what it does and doesn’t do as it pertains to social media platforms and moderation.

Then we talk about fairness and the if-you-don’t-like-it-leave argument, as well as related topics.

We’ll talk about the business models and assumptions implicit in the current state of dominant social media platforms before turning to alternatives or possible solutions in decentralized protocols and multi-layered approaches to moderation or censorship.

Links from the episode:

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Twitter Trump Podcasts Discussion Section 230 The Conversation

Adam B. Levine

Adam B. Levine joined CoinDesk in 2019 as the editor of its new audio and podcasts division. Previously, Adam founded the long-running Let's Talk Bitcoin! talk show with co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Finding early success with the show, Adam transformed the podcast's homepage into a full newsdesk and publishing platform, founding the LTB Network in January of 2014 to help broaden the conversation with new and different perspectives. In the Spring of that year, he would go on to launch the first and largest tokenized rewards program for creators and their audience. In what many have called an early influential version of "Steemit"; LTBCOIN, which was awarded to both content creators and members of the audience for participation was distributed until the LTBN was acquired by BTC, Inc. in January of 2017. With the network launched and growing, in late 2014 Adam turned his attention to the practical challenges of administering the tokenized program and founded Tokenly, Inc. There, he led the development of early tokenized vending machines with Swapbot, tokenized identity solution Tokenpass, e-commerce with TokenMarkets.com and media with Token.fm. Adam owns some BTC, ETH and small positions in a number of other tokens.

Michael J. Casey

Michael J. Casey is Chairman of The Decentralized AI Society, former Chief Content Officer at CoinDesk and co-author of Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age. Previously, Casey was the CEO of Streambed Media, a company he cofounded to develop provenance data for digital content. He was also a senior advisor at MIT Media Labs's Digital Currency Initiative and a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to joining MIT, Casey spent 18 years at The Wall Street Journal, where his last position was as a senior columnist covering global economic affairs. Casey has authored five books, including "The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order" and "The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything," both co-authored with Paul Vigna. Upon joining CoinDesk full time, Casey resigned from a variety of paid advisory positions. He maintains unpaid posts as an advisor to not-for-profit organizations, including MIT Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative and The Deep Trust Alliance. He is a shareholder and non-executive chairman of Streambed Media. Casey owns bitcoin.

Benjamin Powers

Powers is a tech reporter at Grid. Previously, he was privacy reporter at CoinDesk where he focused on data and financial privacy, information security, and digital identity. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, and the New Republic, among others. He owns bitcoin.