Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA 230) protects Internet service providers (ISP), website hosting services (hosts), and domain name registrants / site administrators (site owners), and certain other providers of online services (collectively, websites), from being treated as the publisher of actionable content placed on their websites by third parties. Courts around the country have consistently held that unless the website creates or develops the content, CDA 230 protects them from liability for such content. However, recent decisions have suggested, and one court has recently held, that the term “develop” encompasses more than creating or authoring the allegedly actionable content, which could limit the immunity provided by CDA 230.
Background
CDA 230 was enacted to respond to the growing wave of claims against websites for the “publication” of unlawful content on their sites. See 47 U.S.C. §230. Before CDA 230, any ISP, host, or site owner responsible for providing access to, hosting, or owning a website or blog was a possible target for litigation if unlawful content was published on that website or blog.
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