Should Information Flows Be Controlled By The Internet Plumbers ?

AnonTechie writes:

From: Techdirt

Content moderation is a can of worms. For Internet infrastructure intermediaries, it's a can of worms that they are particularly poorly positioned to tackle. And yet Internet infrastructure elements are increasingly being called on to moderate content-content they may have very little insight into as it passes through their systems.

The vast majority of all content moderation happens on the top" layer of the internet-such as social media and websites, places online that are the most visible to an average user. If a post violates a platform's terms of service, the post is usually blocked or taken down. If a user continues to post content that violates a platform's terms, then the user's account is often suspended. These types of content moderation practices are increasingly understood by average Internet users.

Less often discussed or understood are the types of services facilitated via actors in the Internet ecosystem that both support and exist under the upper content layers of the Internet.

Many of these companies host content, supply cloud services, register domain names, provide web security, and many more features of what could be described as the plumbing services of the Internet. But instead of water and sewage, the Internet deals in digital information. In theory, these infrastructure intermediaries" could moderate content, but for reasons of convention, legitimacy, and practicality they don't usually do it on purpose.

However, some notable recent exemptions may be setting precedent.

Amazon Web Services removed Wikileaks from their system in 2010. Cloudflare kicked off the Daily Stormer. An Italian court ordered Cloudflare to remove a copyright infringing site. Amazon suspended hosting for Parler.

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