Ten Worst Section 230 Rulings of 2016 (Plus the Five Best)
4 01 2017[Ed’s note: Eric supports virtually ALL 230 protections… he and I disagree about those… so we’d probably invert his “best”/“worst” scale. Nevertheless, a solid review from last year.]
2016 was a tough year in many respects (check out the #Fuck2016 hashtag), including a swarm of adverse Section 230 rulings. Even in paradigms where the immunity still functions reasonably well, such as user comments on message boards or online marketplace operator liability, rulings this year provided plaintiffs/regulators with powerful tools to undermine the immunity. As bad as 2016 was, after we see the full effects of this year’s rulings, I think we’ll look back nostalgically at 2016 as Section 230’s high-water mark. How’s that for a “happy” new year?
So rather than enumerate the 10 most important Section 230 rulings, I’ve cynically decided to just list out the 10 worst rulings this year. For those looking for a ray of optimism, the 5 best rulings are at the end of this post.
The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/01/ten-worst-section-230-rulings-of-2016-plus-the-five-best.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
