Facebook Not Liable for Private User Groups Per 230–Finkel v. Facebook
22 10 2009By Eric Goldman
Finkel v. Facebook, Inc., 2009 N.Y. Slip Op. 32248 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Sept. 15, 2009)
This is a really interesting legal dispute with an entirely predictable outcome for Facebook as a defendant. See my initial blog post on the matter. A half-dozen high school students participated in a private Facebook group that ridiculed one of their peers. This wasn’t a nice thing to do, and the conversation exhibits the kind of mean-spirited puerile comments forged by the insecurities and social pressures of high school. Whether the underlying conversation is actually tortious remains unresolved, but I have my doubts.
Nevertheless, we knew all along that Facebook wasn’t liable for its users’ private group or their conversations per 47 USC 230. This wasn’t even close to a colorable question.
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