In a situation where an online forum allows creation of profiles with commenting capabilities, a user may take the initiative to defame an individual personally or professionally. The user may perform illegal actions using the online forum’s website, and in attempting to retrieve damages he/she has suffered, the defamed individual sues the online forum for providing a platform for defamation. However, Congress has provided an exception towards interactive computer services through Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). What does Section 230 of the CDA do? What can you do, as an individual, to recover from defamatory material?
What is Section 230 of the CDA?
It’s a sub-part of a federal statute that essentially dictates that an online forum (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr) is not liable as a publisher or speaker of online defamatory comments made by its users. For example, if a defamatory comment was posted on Facebook, then Facebook would not be liable for the defamation. Essentially, this would protect a website from anything that its users would publish. This is not necessarily just towards defamatory content, although, it could be expanded to “any information” provided by an entity or person using the interactive computer service’s platform. There are, however, exceptions to this broad liability, as we’ll discuss in future blogs. Also, the exact nature of a “publisher” is still unclear. in general, there is a difference between a publisher, which initially produces the comment, and a distributor, which is not covered, that repeats the comment.