The Internet Dilemma
Radiolab
WNYC Studios
4.6 • 43.5K Ratings
🗓️ 11 August 2023
⏱️ 37 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Matthew Herrick was sitting on his stoop in Harlem when something weird happened. Then, it happened again. And again. It happened so many times that it became an absolute nightmare—a nightmare that haunted his life daily and flipped it completely upside down.
What stood between Matthew and help were 26 little words. These 26 words, known as Section 230, are the core of an Internet law that coats the tech industry in Teflon. No matter what happens, who gets hurt, or what harm is done, tech companies can’t be held responsible for the things that happen on their platforms. Section 230 affects the lives of an untold number of people like Matthew, and makes the Internet a far more ominous place for all of us. But also, in a strange twist, it’s what keeps the whole thing up and running in the first place.
Why do we have this law? And more importantly, why can’t we just delete it?
Special thanks to James Grimmelmann, Eric Goldman, Naomi Leeds, Jeff Kosseff, Carrie Goldberg, and Kashmir Hill.
EPISODE CREDITSReported by - Rachael CusickProduced by - Rachael Cusick and Simon Adlerwith mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Natalie MiddletonEdited by - Pat Walters
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Articles:Kashmir Hill’s story introduced us to Section 230.
Books: Jeff Kosseff’s book The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet (https://zpr.io/8ara6vtQVTuK) is a fantastic biography of Section 230To read more about Carrie Goldberg’s work, check out her book Nobody's Victim (https://zpr.io/Ra9mXtT9eNvb).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey folks, just a quick warning before we get started, this episode contains some swear |
| 0:06.1 | words as well as some frank discussions about sex and suicide. |
| 0:10.7 | Nerd discretion is advised. |
| 0:40.7 | Hey, this is Radio Lab and I'm Simon Adler, sitting in for Lulu and Latif this week. |
| 0:46.1 | Yeah, how do you feel that the B team has been set in for this? |
| 0:51.6 | Yeah, they're like, you know, the understudy of the understudy was out today, so you're |
| 0:56.2 | going to have to take some of them out. |
| 0:58.2 | So you're going to have to take just the ushers. |
| 1:00.2 | The ushers. |
| 1:01.2 | Because a while back, our reporter producer, Rachel Kusik, she sat me down in the studio. |
| 1:06.8 | Yeah, exactly. |
| 1:07.8 | But tell me a story about both how beautiful we humans are, but also just how down right |
| 1:16.2 | awful we can be. |
| 1:17.8 | And the tricky business of deciding who should be held responsible when that ugly part |
| 1:24.2 | of us shows. |
| 1:26.2 | Let's hit it. |
| 1:27.2 | Mm-hmm. |
| 1:28.2 | So okay, so we are going to start on a stoop in Harlem. |
| 1:31.4 | Over in West Harlem, in what, 2016? |
| 1:35.7 | Yeah, 2016. |
| 1:36.7 | With this guy. |
| 1:37.7 | Matthew Herrick. |
... |
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