Circumventing Section 230: Product Liability Lawsuits Threaten Internet Speech
CompuServe Inc extended distributor liability to digital intermediaries that exercised little or no editorial control over third‐party content, offering them the protections traditionally granted to newsstands and booksellers. This protected CompuServe from Cubby’s defamation claim, though it left open the possibility that CompuServe might have been liable for Rumorville’s defamation had it failed to act after being made aware of the defamatory content. In 1995, Stratton Oakmont Inc., the brokerage firm of Wolf Wall Street fame, sued internet service Prodigy Services Co. in New Yor...
Source: cato.org