Understanding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996

Are you confused about Internet law?

If someone says something mean about you on Facebook and the company does nothing to remove it, can you sue Facebook? Of course. This is the United States of America. By and large, you can sue anyone for anything. Will you win? More than likely, the answer is no. Why is this the case? Because of a small, but significant provision found in the Communication Decency Act of 1996: 47 U.S.C. Sec. 230, known informally as CDA 230.

Before we get into details on how CDA 230 protects Internet companies from liability related to online content, however, let’s get some background on the Communication Decency Act of 1996 came about.

The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was designated as Title V in the larger legislation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The inclusion of the Communications Decency Act in the greater Telecommunications Act was meant to criminalize obscenity online in the face of the rise of Internet pornography. (Remember, this was 1996, when Internet use was first becoming a common part of American life and people were worried that Internet porn was going to permanently damage our children.) Eventually, the scope of the bill was significantly tightened through the landmark case Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union.

Interestingly, CDA 230 was not an original part of the Communications Decency Act, but was added by the House of Representatives through the Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act, which was co-sponsored by Republican representative Chris Cox and Democratic representative Ron Wyden. The purpose of the addition was to protect Internet service providers from being held criminally liable for indecent content that its users posted. In legalese, the CDA 230 read, “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.”

Back in 1996, this legislation applied mainly to companies such as AOL, and other large Internet service providers. As the web has expanded, however, courts have generally held that the definition of “interactive computer service” also includes websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and other social media websites. Some legal scholars consider this interpretation to be too broad however, and have lobbied to reduce the scope of CDA 230 to reflect modern Internet technologies which allow for rampant and protracted cyberattacks.

An important note about the CDA 230 is that it doesn’t mean individuals cannot file a lawsuit against someone who is defaming them online. Quite to the contrary, as demonstrated in ex-model Liskula Cohen’s lawsuit against Google last year, you can sue an Internet company to reveal the identity of someone who is attacking you online. Of course, whether or not a judge compels the company to give up that identity depends on the specifics of your case. Even in this situation, however, the Internet company hosting the defamatory content can not be found liable for any criminal damages.

So, in the big picture, what does CDA 230 mean for web users? For one thing, it means that while Internet companies have an economic interest in protecting users (no users = no advertising = no revenue), they are not legally compelled to do so. As such, if someone decides to level biased or unfair criticisms against you online, it can be difficult to get them removed. If you have a strong legal argument that the content in question is defamatory, you can hire an attorney to file a lawsuit on your behalf, but this process is long, costly, and generally unsatisfactory.

As an alternative, we advise utilizing a multifaceted reputation management solution, combining reputation monitoring with proactive personal and professional branding. To this end, ReputationDefender offers a wide range of products to help our customers protect their good names online, including MyReputation, MyPrivacy, and MyEdge. To learn more about these products, we encourage you to contact one of our Client Solutions Consultants today at 877-720-6488.

If the CDA 230 can keep web companies immune from damages, you should have something to protect you too. Let that something be ReputationDefender.