Shiamili v. The Real Estate Group of New York [1]

In March 2008, a New York real estate broker filed a defamation lawsuit against The Real Estate Group of New York, Inc. over comments appearing on its website's message board.

The Supreme Court of New York, New York County, denied the real estate group's motion to dismiss based on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act [2] (“Section 230 [3]”). On appeal, the Appellate Division, First Department, reversed [4]. The court held that Section 230 barred the claim. The court explained that the complaint "makes no allegation that defendants authored any defamatory statements" and "merely alleges that defendants 'choose and administer content' that appears on the Web site," adding that "[t]his is precisely the kind of function that the CDA immunizes."

Update:

06/14/2011 - In a 4-3 decision, the New York Court of Appeals upheld [5] the Appellate Division's ruling that Section 230 does indeed bar Shiamili's claim. The Court decided that the defendants' reposting and adding an image to the anonymous comment on their website did not constitute "developing" the allegedly defamatory content. The dissent argued that part of Section 230's purpose was to encourage website owners to voluntarily filter offensive content; reposting and highlighting offensive comments, then, should be outside Section 230's protections.