The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up an appeal in Hassell v. Bird, in which the California Supreme Court ruled that the Communication Decency Act provided that interactive websites were immune from liability for defamatory comments posted on the website.
Hassell, a San Francisco based attorney, sued Yelp for injunctive relief after a user posted a libelous review of her law firm. In suing Yelp, Hassell sought to have them remove the post. After the California Supreme Court ruled in the company’s favor, Yelp said the decision was integral to preserving people’s right to freely publish on online platforms.
Attorneys for Hassell disagreed, and petitioned the Supreme Court to consider:
Whether Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230 et seq., which precludes holding certain interactive computer services “liable” for content posted by users, bars plaintiffs from obtaining an injunction enforcing a valid final judgment against a non-party who controls the posting of tortious and unprotected content?
In their opposition to petition for writ of certiorari, attorneys for Yelp argued that Hassel had attempted to persuade the court through tactical maneuvers, by not naming Yelp in the original lawsuit, instead of through substantive law.
Petitioners’ quest to deny Yelp the federal immunity it would have received if Petitioners had sued Yelp directly should stop here and now. Their insistence that the lower courts should have elevated the form of the action – namely, the fact that Yelp was tactically not named as a party – over the plain language of section 230 and Congress’s clear intent in enacting it to protect websites from actions that treat them as publishers or distributors of third-party content, would exalt form over substance and eviscerate the protection provided by Section 230.
In denying the petition for writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court leaves in place California Supreme Court’s ruling that Yelp, as a third party platform, was immune from liability for defamatory comments made by users.
