Author: Claire Ballentine / Source: New York Times
The California Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Yelp, the local search and reviews site, did not need to remove negative comments posted by a user, in a case closely watched by the industry for its implications for online free speech.
In a 4-to-3 opinion, the court said that federal law protected internet companies from liability for statements written by others. The decision to remove posts is at the company’s discretion, the court said.
Forcing a site to remove user-generated posts “can impose substantial burdens” on the online company, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote in the majority opinion. “Even if it would be mechanically simple to implement such an order, compliance still could interfere with and undermine the viability of an online platform.”
The role of moderating speech on online platforms has become a hotly contested topic, as the reach and influence of companies like Facebook and Google have grown. But the companies have long argued that the companies are not liable for posts published by others on their platform.
The case concerned a San Francisco lawyer, Dawn Hassell, who had accused a client of posting defamatory statements against her on Yelp. A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled that the posts were defamatory and instructed the client…
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