For the first part of the assignment, we focused on who would be liable under common law before the passage of Section 230. However, for this assignment, we will focus on who would be liable for defamation under Section 230.
Under Section 230, none of the parties involved in publishing the false and injurious article can be held liable for defamation if they weren’t the actual author of the defamatory article. For that reason, the only person who can be held liable for defamation would be the article’s author, Clark Kent. On the other hand, Olsen Newsstands, The Daily Planet, and Slow Lane Coffee would only be seen as merely distributors of the article instead of publishers. Even if these three parties were notified by Lex Luthor of the article’s defamatory nature, this wouldn’t change the answer. You see, Section 230 still shields parties from liability even if they’re given notice unless they willingly participate in creating the article or refuse to remove it once receiving a proper takedown notice. The same rules would apply if the article was on dailyplanet.com and patrons viewed it using Slow Lane’s free Wi-Fi. Slow Lane would still be a distributor of the content and shielded from liability.
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