Section 230 Was Supposed to Make the Internet a Better Place. It Failed

One afternoon in July, Ted Cruz banged a gavel on the dais, calling to order a hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. The day’s first witness was Karan Bhatia, a top policy adviser for Google. He gazed up at the panel of senators, alarm creeping into his expression, like a 10-point buck hearing the sudden crack of gunfire.

230 document.

Photographer: Molly Cranna for Bloomberg Businessweek

When elected officials start appending the prefix “big” to the name of an industry, it’s never a good omen. Big Tobacco. Big Oil. Big Pharma. Big Soda. “Sometimes tech companies talk about their products and the effects ...