Otherwise Objectionable: How 230 Let US Internet Companies Win

Policy

from the a-world-without-230 dept

While politicians from both parties race to dismantle Section 230, we’re missing a crucial part of the story: how this uniquely American law helped US internet companies succeed globally. In the latest episode of Otherwise Objectionable, I explore with legal scholar Anupam Chander what might seem paradoxical — how a domestic liability shield became America’s most successful tech export without a single international treaty.

We discuss how other places regulate the internet, including Europe, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Brazil and more. And how each of their approaches created real burdens — the exact kinds of burdens that Chris Cox and Ron Wyden were trying to avoid while drafting Section 230.

What’s particularly striking is how Section 230 functioned as a kind of incubator. The early freedom from crushing legal uncertainty allowed companies to build services compelling enough that international users demanded access to them, creating pressure on foreign regulators to accommodate these platforms rather than block them entirely. This explains what seems like a contradiction: how platforms built under Section 230’s protection can operate in jurisdictions with much stricter liability regimes. They succeeded not despite Section 230, but because of the head start it provided, reinforcing the idea that Section 230’s biggest value is in protecting smaller, newer platforms.

But this era of American digital success may be fading. As regulations globally become increasingly stringent (with the EU’s Digital Services Act, Australia’s Online Safety Act, and dozens of similar regulatory regimes), we’re witnessing the early stages of internet fragmentation. We discuss how platforms will need to make difficult decisions about which markets to exit when compliance becomes untenable.

The irony shouldn’t be lost on American legislators rushing to “reform” Section 230: they’re dismantling the very legal framework that made American digital innovation possible, just as the rest of the world is recognizing — through increasingly desperate regulatory measures — how effective it was.

Filed Under: anupam chander, australia, brazil, eu, france, germany, intermediary liability, japan, otherwise objectionable, section 230, south korea