Comments and libel

The issue of whether bloggers comments can be considered libelous came up when a friend posted news about a new interim city manager. Several commenters alleged wrongdoing at this guy's last job.

I left the following comment:

More on libel and blog comments: The guiding law regarding whether a comment on a blog is libelous is Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code (47 USC § 230). Via the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Section 230 says that “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.” This federal law preempts any state laws to the contrary: “[n]o cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section.” The courts have repeatedly rejected attempts to limit the reach of Section 230 to “traditional” Internet service providers, instead treating many diverse entities as “interactive computer service providers.”

So what does this mean for comments?

Bloggers can be both a provider and a user of interactive computer services. Bloggers are users when they create and edit blogs through a service provider, and they are providers to the extent that they allow third parties to add comments or other material to their blogs. Your readers’ comments, entries written by guest bloggers, tips sent by email, and information provided to you through an RSS feed would all likely be considered information provided by another content provider. This would mean that you would not be held liable for defamatory statements contained in it. However, if you selected the third-party information yourself, no court has ruled whether this information would be considered “provided” to you. One court has limited Section 230 immunity to situations in which the originator “furnished it to the provider or user under circumstances in which a reasonable person…would conclude that the information was provided for publication on the Internet….”
So if you are actively going out and gathering data on your own, then republishing it on your blog, we cannot guarantee that Section 230 would shield you from liability. But we believe that Section 230 should cover information a blogger has selected from other blogs or elsewhere on the Internet, since the originator provided the information for publication to the world. However, no court has ruled on this.

It makes sense for bloggers and BBS owners to be immune to libel. Are we to hover over out computers 24/7, instantly reading all comments and instantly evaluating them for libel, praying we delete them before someone reads it and makes a screen capture and hauls us into court?

I nevertheless advocate bloggers take down stuff that states a person has committed a crime or some loathsome act when there’s immediate evidence that it happened, especially when the comment is made by someone who won’t risk having HIS name attached to it. It avoids lawsuits (however futile as the might be) and hard feelings.