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But perhaps the most important, yet often ignored, catalyst for the Internet’s incredible growth is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act better known as CDA 230. Recognizing that the Internet provided an unrivalled source of varied and valuable information, entertainment, and services, Congress passed CDA 230 to enhance the Internet’s platform as a communications medium by granting limited immunity to the “providers of interactive computer services.”

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation has​ ​explained​, “Unlike publications like newspapers that are accountable for the content they print, online services would be relieved of this liability.” There are two purposes to this provision: to keep the information flowing and to let platforms set their own rules.

What this means in practice is that Yelp, for example, cannot be held liable for a user’s negative—even libelous—review of a restaurant. The restaurant can still take legal action against the user, but it cannot try to penalize the platform, which cannot reasonably be expected to review each of its users’ posts. This enables Yelp to post tens of millions of reviews without having to run each one by a lawyer, allowing a radically democratized medium of speech to operate at scale. Yelp is still responsible for its own actions, but not for every user’s behavior. Importantly, CDA 230 also allows platforms to engage in Good Samaritan moderation without becoming liable for someone else’s content.

This liability protection also provides Americans with significant cultural and economic benefits. David Post​ has argued that “No other sentence in the U.S. Code...has been responsible for the creation of more value than” CDA 230. In fact, a recent study from ​NERA Economic Consulting found that weakening intermediary liability protections could risk up to 425,000 jobs and reduce GDP by as much as $44 billion annually.