https://qz.com/1267714/mark-zuckerberg-says-a-legal-provision-allowed-facebooks-rise-but-times-have-changed/

In a conversation with media executives following his upbeat speech at Facebook’s annual developer conference, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that a legal provision helped enable the rise of his company, but added that things are very different now than when that law was enacted 20 years ago.

Referring to section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, which protects tech companies from civil liability for content shared on their platforms, Zuckerberg said that he “wouldn’t have been able to start Facebook” without it. That’s because Facebook didn’t have the resources to screen content users posted for things such as libel, pornography, or hate speech, and came to rely on users to flag it after it was already on the site.