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georgemcbay • today at 12:15 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

Paid advertisements should be exempt from Section 230.

If you're earning almost 200 billion dollars a year directly from the posting of a certain type of content, you can afford basic moderation to avoid obvious scams and fraud.


Replies

Terr_ • today at 3:05 AM

While I like the general thrust of that idea, there are some kinks to work out.

For example, suppose someone pays $/month for Cubic Zirconia Membership Tier on a site that boosts their posts over the hoi polloi.

That person makes a post hyping up their company or product with a link. Isn't that also a "paid advertisement", just with a different payment scheme? What happens if their product is a scam or otherwise legally-problematic? If gets Section 230 protection, how can we prevent sites/advertisers from abusing the new definition?