Section 230 of the CDA protects online news website from defamatory comment posted by anonymous person — Hadley v. Gatehouse Media Freeport Holdings, Inc.,2012 WL 2866463 (N.D. Ill. July 10, 2012)

This is a pretty straightforward Section 230 case.  Gatehouse Media Freeport Holdings, Inc. publishes The Journal-Standard.  Like many modern newspapers, The Journal-Standard is available in print and online.  The Journal-Standard published an article about Bill Hadley, a candidate for political office.  An anonymous person using the name “Fuboy” posted an online comment to the article saying that “Hadley is a Sandusky waiting to be exposed.  Check out the view he has of Empire from his front door.”  Hadley sued Gatehouse Media for defamation.

Gatehouse Media got the lawsuit dismissed based on Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which provides that “[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”  47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1).  As a website host that allows readers to post comments, Gatehouse Media was an “interactive computer service.”  A user who posts comments on the newspaper’s website is “another information content provider.”  That means Gatehouse Media is not considered the publisher or speaker of the allegedly defamatory comment directed at Hadley.

Hadley hypothesized that Gatehouse Media could have invented a fictitious person named “Fuboy” to post the comment anonymously.  There being no evidence, the court disregarded the argument as “sheer speculation.”

LegalTXT Lesson: Section 230 is a powerful shield against defamation in the digital age, and a much needed one given the ease with which anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can post outlandish remarks under the cover of anonymity on a website hosted by a member of the mainstreammedia.