This article has been indexed from Deeplinks
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has allowed a civil lawsuit to move forward against Snapchat, a smartphone social media app, brought by the parents of three teenage boys who died tragically in a car accident after reaching a maximum speed of 123 miles per hour. We agree with the court’s ruling, which confirmed that internet intermediaries are not immune from liability when the harm does not flow from the speech of other users.
The parents argue that Snapchat was negligently designed because it incentivized users to drive at dangerous speeds by offering a “speed filter” that could be used during the taking of photos and videos. The parents allege that many users believed that the app would reward them if they drove 100 miles per hour or faster. One of the boys had posted a “snap” with the “speed filter” minutes before the crash.
The Ninth Circuit rightly held in Lemmon v. Snap, Inc. that Section 230 does not protect Snapchat from the parents’ lawsuit. Section 230 is a critical federal law that protects user speech by providing internet intermediaries with partial immunity against civil claims for hosting user-generated content (see 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1)). Thus, for example, if a review site publishes a review that contains a statement that defames someone else, the reviewer may be properly sued for writing and uploading the defamatory content, but not the review site for hosting it.
EFF has been a staunch supporter of Section 230 since it was enacted in 1996, recognizing that the law has facilitated free speech and innovation online for 25 years. By partially shielding internet intermediaries from potential liability for what their users say and do on their platforms, Section 230 creates the legal breathing room for entrepreneurs to create a multitude of diverse spaces and services online. By contrast, with greater legal exposure, companies are incentivized in the opposite direction—to Lawsuit Against Snapchat Rightfully Goes Forward Based on “Speed Filter,” Not User Speech