E-Commerce Law: Overview of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

Overview of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C. § 230, was enacted to ensure that providers and users of "interactive computer services" would not be exposed to liability as "publishers" of any information provided by another "information content provider." H.R. Rep. No. 105-775 § I(E). Essentially, Section 230 protects a website operator from being held liable for third-party content published on his site, even if the website operator edits the content.

Given the the importance of Section 230 to our readers, we thought we should put together an overview of the statute. To this end, we have published a Squidoo lens, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which we will endeavor to update regularly.