In a recent lawsuit against Yelp, a federal appeals court in California dismissed a libel lawsuit brought by the owner of a Washington state locksmith business. According to the Wall Street Journal article, "a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel held that Yelp was protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act."  How does Section 230 protect companies like Yelp, Facebook, etc?

Tucked inside the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996 is one of the most valuable tools for protecting freedom of expression and innovation on the Internet: Section 230.  Section 230 states that "No 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).  What does this mean?  It means that online companies such as Yelp, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook and other sites that host or republish speech and comments are protected against a range of laws that might otherwise be used to hold them legally responsible for what others say and do.  Section 230 also protects bloggers against liability for comments left by readers, guest bloggers, or other information received via email or RSS feed.  See the infographic below by www.eff.org about CDA 230.

For a list of key cases litigating Section 230 of the CDA, click here