A literary agent is suing Wikipedia owner the Wikimedia
Foundation over a comment posted on the site that she was "the
dumbest" of a list of the 20 worst literary agents. Barbara Bauer
said the comment was defamatory.
A science fiction authors' organisation called Writers Beware
created a list of the 20 literary agencies about which it received
the most complaints. Bauer was on that list, and she has claimed
that comments on Wikipedia then called her "the dumbest of the 20
worst" agents.
Wikimedia denies that those comments ever appeared but argues
that even if they did they are protected under the US
Constitution's guarantee of the right to free speech.
Wikimedia argues overall, though, that it is protected from
liability by the Communications Decency Act (CDA), whose section
230 protects a publisher from liability for things said by other
people on its electronic services until it is made aware of the
comments. At that point it must take action or risk becoming
liable.
The section of the Act says that "[n]o provider or user of an
interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or
speaker of any information provided by another information content
provider".
In its application for summary dismissal of the case, Wikimedia
says that the law applies directly to it.
"As the operator of the Wikipedia website, Wikimedia is
indisputably a user and a provider of an interactive computer
service under [section] 230," said its claim. "In addition, the
statements on which Plaintiffs' claims are based were posted on
Wikipedia by another information content provider. The Complaint
itself indicates that the allegedly defamatory statements on
Wikipedia originated elsewhere, alleging that virtually identical
statements to those appearing on the Wikipedia site appeared on
numerous other websites."
The case is a vital one for Wikipedia, which exists to hold
encyclopedia entries created by other people. If would be a serious
blow to its way of operating if it were not granted immunity under
the CDA.
"We provide a platform through Wikipedia for smart citizens to
give their knowledge back to a larger culture," said Wikimedia
Foundation general counsel Mike Godwin. "Our ability to offer
citizens that platform is what's at stake in this case."
"Congress passed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
in order to protect websites' operators like Wikipedia from suits
like this one," said James Chadwick of Sheppard Mullin, the US law
firm that is acting for Wikimedia. "It's simple but it's
fundamental: Congress has decided that internet censorship isn't
the answer, so websites aren't liable for statements posted by
their users."
The case is being supported by digital rights body the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Without strong liability
protection, it would be difficult for Wikipedia to continue to
provide a platform for user-created encyclopedia content," said EFF
senior staff attorney Matt Zimmerman.
