Zeran v. America Online [1]

Shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing, an unknown person posted messages on an AOL bulletin board purporting to offer for sale t-shirts and other items which supported or made light of the bombing in Oklahoma City. The messages contained Kenneth Zeran’s first name and phone number.

After Zeran received outraged calls and death threats, he complained to AOL, which removed the postings but did not post a retraction. Similar messages continued to appear on AOL for several weeks despite Zeran’s request that AOL block such messages.

Zeran originally filed negligence and defamation claims in Oklahoma, claiming that AOL was responsible for the postings. AOL moved to have the suit transferred to Virginia, where it was decided.

On March 27, 2007, the district court granted AOL's motion to dismiss. See Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 958 F.Supp. 1124 (E.D. Va. 1997) [2].

On November 12, 1997, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision on appeal. See Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327, 328 (4th Cir. 1997) [3]. The Court of Appeals based its ruling on Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act, which states: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

The Court of Appeals also rejected Zeran's argument that Section 230 should not apply in this case because the messages at issue had been posted before the statute was enacted.