The NYT Daily podcast raised a legal issue that will impact the entire internet and all large tech companies which rely on algorithms.

US Supreme Court and the case for shielding internet companies (i.e. current state)

Background

Section 230 is a shield that protects the internet and the companies involved particularly YouTube which is the defendant in this case that arose from the concert hall bombing in Paris some years ago.

Analysis

At stake is the extent of monitoring required of YouTube and tech companies such as Meta.

• the full book store model with zero accountability for content.
• extreme monitoring and take everything down – the newspaper model, fully monitored based on standard journalistic principles
  
• Supreme Court justices seeking a more moderate way forward, despite “we are not the worlds leading internet experts”.
  

Since 1996, the modern internet has been defined by a sweeping law that prevents tech companies such as Facebook and Google from being held responsible for the content posted on their sites.

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could take that legal immunity away.

Guest: Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

Implications

In plain language those thumbnails of other sites “that you may be interested in” shift the accountability of ownership for the content from the author (in this case ISIS) to YouTube. YouTube would take on content ownership as a direct consequence of their own algorithms.