230
Section 230 is the US law shielding online platforms from liability for what users post.
- Even
- Composite
Where 230 fits
Why 230 is special
Twenty-six words in a 1996 statute are why comment sections, social networks and review sites can exist without pre-screening everything. It is simultaneously credited with enabling the modern internet and blamed for what that has become, and proposals to amend it come from both directions.
Same number, different meanings
How 230 is understood across different contexts — never implying one meaning because of another.
- Mathematics
Twenty-six words in a 1996 statute are why comment sections, social networks and review sites can exist without pre-screening everything. It is simultaneously credited with enabling the modern internet and blamed for what that has become, and proposals to amend it come from both directions.
- Technology & computing
The nominal mains voltage is 230 volts (Europe and much of Africa and Asia, IEC 60038). A harmonised figure adopted in 1987 to reconcile Britain's 240 volts with continental Europe's 220, with a tolerance band wide enough that neither country had to change anything physical.
- Law & regulation
Section 230 says a platform is not treated as the publisher of what its users post. That sentence is why user-generated content is viable at all in the United States, and why reform proposals arrive from opposite political directions with incompatible aims.
230 is part of
Factors & digit properties
- Divisors (8)
- 1, 2, 5, 10, 23, 46, 115, 230
- Prime factorisation
- 2 × 5 × 23
- Digit sum
- 5
- Digital root
- 5
Representations
- Decimal
- 230
- Scientific notation
- 2.300 × 10^2
Roman numerals
C C X X X
Binary
1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
1 × 128 + 1 × 64 + 1 × 32 + 0 × 16 + 0 × 8 + 1 × 4 + 1 × 2 + 0 × 1 = 230
Octal
3 4 6
3 × 64 + 4 × 8 + 6 × 1 = 230
Hexadecimal
e 6
e × 16 + 6 × 1 = 230
Read as powers of two: 128 + 64 + 32 + 4 + 2 = 230.
In historical numeral systems
Egyptian
2 coils of rope, 3 hobbles
2 × 100 + 3 × 10 = 230. The signs are simply repeated and added; where they sit on the line is a matter of layout, not value.
Babylonian
3 vertical wedges (sixties place), 5 corner wedges (units place)
3 × 60 + 50 = 230. Places are separated by a space on the tablet, with the higher place written first.
Greek (Ionic)
sigma, then lambda, marked as a numeral
sigma-lambda + keraia
sigma + lambda written in descending order and added — the letters carry their values wherever they stand, so this is addition, not place value.
Hebrew numerals
resh, then lamed
resh-lamed
resh (200) + lamed (30) = 230, written in descending order.
Maya
2 bars + 1 dot (upper, twenties place) over 2 bars (lower, units place)
11 × 20 + 10 = 230. Places stack vertically with the smallest at the bottom, so the upper group is worth twenty times the lower.
Systems that simply cannot reach this value are left out. Where a script needs a font most readers do not have, the reading is given instead of the glyphs — see number systems for each system in full.
Other mathematical patterns
- Deficient number
- Happy number
- Harshad (Niven) number
Related numbers & connections
230 appears in Numbers in radio and communications, the topic covering numbers that carry a documented radio or communications fact.
Section 230 was enacted in 1996 and is why user-generated content is viable in the United States. Two years later Google was founded on the assumption that the web would keep growing.
View 1996 →Technology & computing
The nominal mains voltage is 230 volts (Europe and much of Africa and Asia, IEC 60038). A harmonised figure adopted in 1987 to reconcile Britain's 240 volts with continental Europe's 220, with a tolerance band wide enough that neither country had to change anything physical.
DocumentedTechnology & computingGeography: Europe and much of Africa and Asia, IEC 60038
Law & regulation
Section 230 says a platform is not treated as the publisher of what its users post. That sentence is why user-generated content is viable at all in the United States, and why reform proposals arrive from opposite political directions with incompatible aims.
DocumentedLaw & regulationGeography: United States
Common questions
Is 230 a prime number?
No, 230 is not prime.
What are the factors of 230?
The factors of 230 are 1, 2, 5, 10, 23, 46, 115, 230.
What is 230 in Roman numerals?
230 in Roman numerals is CCXXX.
About this page's data
Mathematical facts:computed directly from the number's value — nothing to source or verify externally.
Contextual records: 2 reviewer-confirmed records, sourced and reviewed before publication.
Last reviewed: 15 July 2026