Post

Mike Masnick
@masnick.com

Senate Commerce hearing on Section 230. And, uh, this is big. Not giving him any credit, but Ted Cruz was really the first Senator to be vocally anti-230 and calling for repeal a decade ago. And here he is saying "whoa, repeal might be bad." That's big. www.commerce.senate.gov/2026/3/liabi...

65 reposts357 likes

Killgore the Trout
@somenobody24.bsky.social

Two of the experts he’s inviting to this are also anti-Trump pro-free speech buffs, one criticized Texas and Florida over their Age Verification mandates and the other sued Trump over it. He’s been trying to play up this “sensible libertarian” identity in preparation for a run for president IIRC.

Blake C. Stacey
@blakestacey.myatproto.social

I gotta say, this even getting a hearing is making my blood pressure spike. Gotta write a script for a concerned-constituent call to Markey (who sits on the committee) tomorrow. (looks at clock) Well, later today, technically.

Mike Masnick
@masnick.com

Oh yeah. That guy is crazy with a capital C. He's an ambulance chaser who wants to be seen as the Erin Brokovich of social media. His whole schtick is wanting to sue more social media companies for any little thing that goes wrong. He's all show. But not very bright.

Blake C. Stacey
@blakestacey.myatproto.social

He's involved in the Los Angeles lawsuit, isn't he? I suppose next Wednesday he could be high off winning that... though OTOH, a successful litigation against Meta would rather undercut the idea that the law itself needs to be changed.

Ernie Smith
@ernie.tedium.co

That's so weird to think about. Reflects how much decision-making is done by vibes rather than, y’know, what the law actually does

jojo713.bsky.social
@jojo713.bsky.social

There lies the hidden divide in the hate against S230. Those who want to sunset S230 and those who want to reform it. And Cruz is definitely apart of the later group. But it’s this divide that has mostly saved S230 in recent years from legislative wrath. Ironic.

Emelia
@thisismissem.social

Yeah, you need anti-monopoly and privacy laws, not a repeal of 230. You need laws to force interoperability and open networks or data portability

Mike Masnick
@masnick.com

One of these days I'm going to finish my paper on all of this, but the one nuance I'd add is you want laws that *encourage* interop/portability, not mandate. Because mandates are where the trouble comes in.

Emelia
@thisismissem.social

Going to trust you there because I'm definitely no legal expert, I just know the EU laws have been somewhat effective here in changing political outlook & outcomes

David Lynch
@david.lynch.wtf

I’d speculate that this is the probable shift in control of congress at play. Repeal sounded better when he thought he’d be in charge.