Web 1.0

The 26 words that shaped the modern internet

Listen on

Apple(Opens in new window)Google(Opens in new window)Spotify(Opens in new window)

The unlikely origin of a rule that shapes everyday life online

Listen | 31:50

Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. Characters depicted in the film were at the heart of the court case that led to the creation of Section 230. Photograph: Paramount Pictures.

Tue Oct 31 2023 - 06:05

Why is the internet the way it is? In Web 1.0, a new six-part podcast series, Irish Times videographer Enda O’Dowd explores the arguments and innovations that were happening back when the web was new, and how they reverberate in today’s messy and chaotic online world.

This episode tells the unlikely origin story of Section 230, a clause within a US law originally designed to clean up the internet, and how 26 words within Section 230 create the conditions for the online world we know today.

Featuring a US Senator concerned about pornography, an ambitious undergraduate, a credulous magazine journalist, a former broker who was portrayed by Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street - and an army of anonymous online posters.

Web 1.0 is reported, produced and edited by Enda O’Dowd. Listen to all episodes here.

LATEST STORIES
OUR PODCASTS