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Manuel_D 28 minutes ago

So Hacker News should lose section 230 protection?

Because the content served here isn't served in chronological order. The front page takes votes into account and displays hotter posts higher in the feed.

slg 7 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Technically sorting by timestamp is an "algorithm" too, so I was just speaking informally rather than drafting the exact language of a piece of legislation. I would define the categories as something like algorithms determined by direct proactive user decisions (following, upvoting, etc) versus algorithms that are determined by other factors. Basically it should always be clear why you're being served what you're being served, either because the user chose to see it or because everyone is seeing it. No more nebulous black box algorithms that give every user an experience individually designed to keep them on the platform.

This will still impact HN because of stuff like the flame war downranker they use here. However, that doesn't automatically mean HN loses Section 230 protection. HN could respond by simplifying its ranking algorithm to maintain 230 protections.

sleight42 17 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

And there's also moderator control?

Yup. Accountable.

Manuel_D 13 minutes ago | parent [-]

So to be clear, anything other than a 4chan-like unmoderated chronological feed results in loss of section 230 protection?

Heck, even 4chan wouldn't qualify, because despite considerably looser content rules they still actually do perform moderation.