Websites freed from liability for user words

    The California Supreme Court ruled that only the author who first spoke these words and no one else can be held responsible for defamation on the Internet. Neither the owner of the site (even if it is an individual), nor the moderator of the forum, nor the owner of the blog, nor the Internet provider, nor the search engine bear any responsibility if statements that violate the law are found on their sites.

    Thus, the California court finally clarified the text of the law known as the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA). This law, adopted almost ten years ago, provides for criminal (up to two years in prison) and administrative liability for publishing “slanderous” statements on the Internet. Moreover, the law deals not only with the responsibility of the author of these statements, but also with the responsibility of the “publisher” of these statements and the legal entity that “deliberately allowed the use of the telecommunications infrastructure under its jurisdiction to commit offenses”.

    Naturally, such an extraordinary law immediately gave rise to numerous protests, appeals and revisions, which continue to this day. Perhaps the decision of the California Supreme Court will put an end to a series of trials, but perhaps the case will again go to a higher court for review.

    The California Supreme Court decision was a great relief for Internet companies. After all, if they were blamed for all the content that users publish, then they would have to implement sophisticated systems for pre-filtering and moderating content, and it is completely unclear what principles should be censored. In America, the problem has already been resolved, but the owners of domestic forums are still in this awkward situation. Because of this, they introducedraconian rules for pre-filtering content and in every way infringe on the rights of its users. This is a necessary measure, otherwise the owners of the sites themselves will appear in court.

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