https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210207/19262446203/how-to-think-about-online-ads-section-230.shtml > There's been a lot of consternation about online ads, sometimes even for good reason. The problem is that not all of the criticism is sound or well-directed. Worse, the antipathy towards ad tech, regardless of whether it is well-founded or not, is coalescing into yet more unwise, and undeserved, attacks on Section 230 and other expressive discretion the First Amendment protects. If these attacks are ultimately successful none of the problems currently lamented will be solved, but they will create lots of new ones. > As always, effectively addressing actual policy challenges first requires a better understanding of what these challenges are. The reality is that there are at least three separate issues that are raised by online ads: those related to ad content itself, those related to audience targeting, and those related to audience tracking. They all require their own policy responses—and, as it happens, none of those policy responses call for doing anything to change Section 230. In fact, to the extent that Section 230 is even relevant, the best policy response will always require keeping it intact.