When politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz demand that Twitter identify itself as either a “publisher” or a “platform,” they usually make this false distinction in the entirely erroneous context of 47 U.S.C. § 230, the provision of U.S. law that grants broad immunity from liability to online intermediaries when such liability would be based on the speech of others. Rather than enshrine some significance between online “platforms” and “publishers,” Section 230 intentionally nullifies any distinction that might have existed. Contrary to popular misconception, immunity is not a reward for intermediaries that choose the path of total neutrality (
whatever that means); nor did Congress enact Section 230 with an expectation that Internet services were or would become completely neutral. Section 230 explicitly grants immunity to all intermediaries, both the “neutral” and the proudly biased. It treats them exactly the same, and does so on purpose.
That’s a feature of Section 230, not a bug.
So online services did not self-identify as “platforms” to mythically gain Section 230 protection—they had that already.