He forgot, “and silencing and deleting dissenters”

[rant]

Remember this quote whenever you see your legislators attacking Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which is the part that gives web-services immunity for whatever end-users say or post on it.

(While the full explanation is complicated, put simply, Secton 230 allows comment forums to exist, despite neonazis, spam and CSAM. It also allows servers to moderate the content freely, to as to keep the neonazis, spam and CSAM at low levels.)

Thanks to SESTA/FOSTA, we still have a Section 230 carveout for human-trafficking related material, which didn’t actually reduce human-trafficking (incident rates increased, actually) but also drove servers to evict sex worker forums where they checked in, discussed methods and warned about bad clients. It’s also put a dent in LGBT+ forums where kids were pointed towards educational materials and the community shared experiences.

The internet makes us aware when police kill unarmed, non-resisting suspects, when nations act to hobble encrypted communication services, when politicians engage in corruption or say the quiet part loud, and yes, when Palestinians are tortured or massacred by the Israeli state. And these are the reasons they would like to turn the internet into one-way cable TV again, one carve-out at a time.

And, yes, this is why Musk bought Twitter in the first place at an inflated price. The same reason the automotive industry buys trolley services to dismantle them.

[/rant]