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CompuServe had around a hundred independent forums on its site. On one of these independent forums called "Skuttlebut", there was a post that was considered defamatory about Chubby, Inc. CompuServe did not check or review what was posted on these forums, so this case was dismissed on the grounds that they did not have prior knowledge of this post. https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/defamation-and-the-internet/sections/precedent/cases.html
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A user from Prodigy had released an anonymous post on Prodigy's Money Talk Bulletin Board that Daniel Porush and his company had committed criminal acts at their brokerage firm. After seeing this post, Daniel Porush filed a lawsuit against Prodigy. The argument was that Prodigy should be more considered as a publisher and since it was viewed like this from the court as well, the damages were settled and Prodigy was classified as a publisher.
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Kenneth Zeran had his phone number and his house address posted and it had connections with several t-shirts and mugs and other items that were acknowledging a bombing that had occurred in OKC. Soon later, a user had acquired Zeran's number and posted it on ads Zeran had received multiple threats through phone and other ways. Kenneth sued AOL for allowing such articles and ads to be posted. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/613/zeran-v-america-online-inc-4th-cir
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Websites themselves can not be held responsible on what their users post.
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The appellate court said that Section 230 does not protect websites from liability if they know or have reason to know of any defamatory content on their platform. (The case was dismissed regardless, as eBay's terms of service absolved them of responsibility)
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Contributed to the idea that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act grants immunity from defamation liability to people who republish defamatory comments online. https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/544/barrett-v-rosenthal-cal-s-ct
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If a site operator encourages illegal content or requires illegal content from its users, it would lose its CDA immunity.
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The SPEECH Act was signed into legislation by President Barack Obama in 2010. This act makes it impossible for money won from cases overseas in countries that do not protect freedom of speech as much as the U.S. to be collected in the States.
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6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that thedirty.com was protected under Section 230 because the creators of the website did not contribute to the defamation of the cheerleader themselves, only their users.