The Taming of the Internet: A New Approach Third-Party Internet Defamation

This article examines the liability of interactive Internet forum operators for defamatory statements written by third parties. It discusses Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and how the courts have applied it to third-party Internet defamation. The article concludes that the courts\u27 various approaches fail to adequately protect the various interests involved, as immunizing distributors fails to adequately protect defamation victims, and notice-based liability fails to adequately protect free expression on the web. Policy challenges and the constitutional foundations of libel law should be jointly considered to create a new test to evaluate liability for third-party libel on the Internet