Sacha Baron Cohen is the latest powerful voice to misunderstand Section 230

Welcome back to our discussion about platforms and democracy! I had a great time meeting Interface readers last week at the Techonomy conference in Half Moon Bay and the Conference on New Media and Democracy at Tufts University. I also made great progress on a special report I plan to have for you here before the end of the year. But enough prelude — on with today’s update.

“I’m one of the last people you’d expect to hear warning about the danger of conspiracies and lies,” the actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen said today in an op-ed in the Washington Post, adapted from last week’s viral speech about the dangers of social networks at an Anti-Defamation League conference.

In fact, Baron Cohen is exactly the sort of person I’d expect to...

Continue reading…