Otherwise Objectionable: The Internet Before Section 230

The second episode of Otherwise Objectionable, my new podcast series all about Section 230, is now out: The Dawn of the Internet. This week, I talk to a bunch of folks (including one of the first friends I ever met online) about what the internet was actually like in the early days, before Section 230, including living through the infamous “September that Never Ended.”

This episode also features conversations with Section 230 experts Eric Goldman, Jeff Kosseff, and Jessica Melugin, who all appeared in last week’s episode. Also, though, is a fun conversation with journalist Steven Levy, talking about how he first got interested in the internet and “hacker culture” in the lead-up to his seminal 1984 book “Hackers.” That discussion included a nugget I hadn’t realized before: that Levy hosted the event where Stewart Brand, in discussion with Steve Wozniak, “hacked” a line that Levy himself had written, to argue that “information wants to be free, information wants to be expensive.”

We also talk to Chris Cox, the Congressional Representative who, alongside Ron Wyden, wrote Section 230. We discuss some of Cox’s own early computer expertise and what caught his eye about some of the early lawsuits regarding intermediary liability, causing him to draft 230 — a conversation we’ll get into in more detail in a future episode.