Immunity to the Web Hangs in Balance

By: Trina Joshi



The latest ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th cir.) denies immunity to Web site roommates.com for seemingly discriminatory content under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, according to a Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press report.

Until this ruling, the section 230 of the CDA did not hold a Web publisher liable for any third-party content that had objectionable contents and might appear discriminatory to some readers.

The Web site in question here has no unlawful information/content that may deprive it of complete protection under the section 230 of the CDA. However, the interactive format of the Web site, like the drop-down lists, asks certain questions that might offend some.

The dissenting judge said that this ruling has baffled the Web publisher about how far they deserve to be left alone.


My question - Is certain content on the Web subject to scrutiny?
Does this ruling challenge Judge Dalzell's stand on immunity to the Internet?


Reminder - Dalzell assigned the maximum scrutiny to the Internet and said that it is entitled to "highest protection from governmental inturion."