Libel Tourism Law Official... Including Important Nod To Section 230 Safe Harbors
from the this-is-good dept
We spend a lot of time discussing bad legislation around here, every so often it's nice to hear of some good legislation. Last month, we noted that an anti-libel tourism bill was making its way through Congress, which would protect US citizens from foreign libel judgments on laws that went against the First Amendment. Thankfully, that bill has now been signed into law -- and it may be even better than we initially expected. That's because, at the urging of folks such as Public Citizen, Congress inserted a bit into the law that also extends the important Section 230 safe harbors to this bill.As you hopefully know, Section 230 safe harbors make sure that liability is properly applied. That is, it says you can't blame an online service provider for actions by its users. This is incredibly important if you believe that liability should be applied to the appropriate parties. However, very few other countries have such safe harbors, leading to regular lawsuits against service providers (often US service providers) for the actions of their users. Now, this law protects US service providers from such judgments.
Perhaps equally important as having this extension in the law is the discussion on the floor about including Section 230 safe harbors, because that's now a part of the Congressional record, where various elected officials make explicit the reasons why Section 230 protections make sense.
The purpose of this provision is to ensure that libel tourists do not attempt to chill speech by suing a third-party interactive computer service, rather than the actual author of the offending statement.This is important, especially at a time when some have been attempting to seriously cripple Section 230 safe harbors by pretending they serve some other purpose outside of the proper application of liability.
In such circumstances, the service provider would likely take down the allegedly offending material rather than face a lawsuit. Providing immunity removes this unhealthy incentive to take down material under improper pressure.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: defamation, first amendment, liability, libel, libel tourism, section 230
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Since When Is The Rest Of The World Subject To The US Constitution?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Since When Is The Rest Of The World Subject To The US Constitution?
It's not - obviously ... what's your point?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Since When Is The Rest Of The World Subject To The US Constitution?
If they don't like what's said on the US hosted site, it's up to them to filter it out of their country, not try to use their court systems to limit what a US citizen can say on a US hosted site.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Since When Is The Rest Of The World Subject To The US Constitution?
I guess the title was sarcasm.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If the US company has not taken any action inside the other country that breaks the other nation's laws, then there's no reasonable basis for such a seizure.
But perhaps the fullest significance of the legislators' reasoning has escaped notice until now:
This same statement clearly can be used to argue for eliminating the DMCA's notice-and-takedown provisions, either entirely or in favor of notice-and-notice.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How much was the bribe paid by Google to Steve Cohen?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How much was the bribe paid by Google to Steve Cohen?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How much was the bribe paid by Google to Steve Cohen?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How much was the bribe paid by Google to Steve Cohen?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WTH
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: WTH
Incidentally I agree with you on the McKinnon case.
But if you believe on sovereignty grounds that McKinnon should not be extradited to the US for UK-based acts that reach into the US but are presumably crimes only in the US, then logically you should also believe that the US is not obliged to support US lawsuits against ISPs for hosting (not producing) libelous content in the US, even if the audience and victim are in the UK, and even if ISPs are liable in the UK -- because they also don't support those lawsuits when all actors are internal to the US.
The producers of the libel can still be sued in the US, just not the host.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Total dumbness.
#1. It has obligation to put full infirmation of the writter. Otherwise it is obstructing justice. If an idiot writes something about Hotel X, the idiot has everything about Hotel X but Hotel X has nothing more than John Doe. USA doesn't work that way.
#2. Tripadvisor is third party providing service. Ok. It's fine. I am for it. But if rent a room where someone is running brothel or cooking meth, for law enforcement / prosecution the location is important and has authority to take possession of the place not caring who owns it.
#3. Trip advisor is okay but writer must provide all correct information. Trip Advisor must have system in place to not make it to board. Also, Tripadvisor must require total enchilada (example - an idiot is on road and finding nothing open at 2 in morning but still looking for $45 room
and reluctant to pay $80, what do you expect from such idiots on tripadvisor ?).
No matter what country, laws, etc; can stretch this, down the road TriopAdvisor will have to clean up.
TripAdvisor has as much chances as new Tea Party (full of idiots)in USA.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Total dumbness.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Does Libel tourism law have a retrospective effect?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]