John Oliver’s Content Moderation Episode Isn’t Just Funny — It’s Absolutely Accurate

Here was a fun surprise last night. John Oliver just delivered what might be the most accessible and accurate mainstream takedown of content moderation myths we’ve seen yet. The latest episode of “Last Week Tonight” tackled content moderation head-on, while systematically dismantling Mark Zuckerberg’s increasingly dubious justifications for Meta’s policy changes. In this era where most mainstream coverage of content moderation is a total mess, Oliver somehow manages to both be hilarious and (surprisingly) get basically everything right about this impossibly thorny issue.

It’s worth watching, if only to see someone explain in 30 minutes what we’ve been trying to hammer home for years. (And no, I’m not just saying that because he mentions Masnick’s Impossibility Theorem — though that certainly doesn’t hurt.)

The segment hits on several key points:

First, there’s what you might call the fundamentals of content moderation (or “why the internet isn’t just porn and diet pills 101”):

1. Section 230 made it possible to moderate content online. Without it, websites would basically have two choices: let everything in (hello, spam!) or shut everything down. Neither is great for business, or users, or… well, anyone really.
2. Content moderation is an intractable issue. This isn’t just my opinion — it’s mathematics. Every platform that allows user content either moderates or dies trying. There’s no third option. (Unless you count “becoming a wasteland of porn and diet pill ads” as an option, which, fair enough, some do.)
3. The dirty secret is that social media companies have actually put a fair bit of effort into this problem. They’ve drawn lines, redrawn them, hired thousands of moderators, built AI systems, and… people still hate where those lines end up. Because of course they do. That’s the “impossible” part of my theorem.

Then, he debunks the false claims of political manipulation:

4. Oliver points out how MAGA Republicans insisting that content moderation is some sort of vast left-wing conspiracy targeting conservatives turns out to be complete nonsense.
5. He also does an excellent job debunking the misleading narrative around “Hunter Biden laptop” story. As we’ve written, that story has been blown totally out of proportion. The narrative says it was suppressed. It wasn’t. The narrative says the details were damning. It wasn’t that either. What it was, mainly, was a masterclass in how to turn routine content moderation decisions into political theater. And Oliver shows that clearly.
6. Then there’s Zuck’s latest performance piece about how the Biden administration supposedly forced him to censor content. Oliver absolutely nails why this claim is ridiculous. (Pro tip: When the government “pressures” you to do something and you just… tell them no and nothing happens in response, that’s not exactly censorship.)
7. And then the kicker: Oliver highlights (as we have multiple times) that even the very conservative Supreme Court has said these claims are nonsense. Though I suppose when reality conflicts with your preferred narrative, you can always just pretend the Supreme Court doesn’t exist… or that Amy Coney Barrett is too woke.

And here’s where Oliver really sticks the landing, showing where all of this is heading:

8. Remember all those “simple fixes” politicians keep proposing for Section 230? Oliver explains how every single one would basically hand the government (and specifically, the Musk/Trump administration) a shiny new tool to silence speech they dislike. Because nothing says “free speech” quite like giving the government more power to control online speech, right?
9. Finally, Oliver exposes the Zuckerberg two-step: Zuck loves to brag about how he stood up to the Biden administration’s requests, but conveniently leaves out the part where he completely rolled over for Trump’s actual threats. (You know it’s bad when Trump himself is bragging about how effectively he bullied Zuck, which Oliver points out, shows that it doesn’t take a genius to realize what really happened.)

In the end, what Oliver has given us is basically a greatest hits album of Techdirt’s content moderation coverage from the last few years, except with better production values and more jokes about Mark Zuckerberg’s new look. And the finale? A pitch-perfect “advertisement” for Facebook’s new content moderation philosophy that can be summed up in two words: Fuck It.