Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

This page provides an overview of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ("Section 230"), an important federal law that provides legal protections to operators of websites and other types of interactive computer services. This page also collects information involving Section 230 from across the Citizen Media Law Project website. You will find background information on Section 230 as well as listings of recent blog posts, lawsuits, and news.

Section 230 Basics:

• Section 230 grants interactive online services of all types, including news websites, blogs, forums, and listservs, broad immunity from certain types of legal liability stemming from content created by others.
• This immunity covers defamation and privacy claims, as well as negligence and other tort claims associated with publication. See the Risks Associated with Publication section of our legal guide for more information on the legal claims online publishers may face.
• You will not lose this immunity even if you edit the content, whether for accuracy or civility, so long as your edits do not materially alter the meaning of the original content. We analyze in detail the types of activites that are covered by Section 230 and those activities that fall outside its protections in the Online Activities Covered by Section 230 and Online Activities Not Covered by Section 230 pages of our legal guide.
• Section 230 does not apply to copyright infringement claims and other intellectual property claims. For information on protecting yourself from these types of claims, see the section on Protecting Yourself Against Copyright Claims Based on User Content in our legal guide.

Of course, the list above is merely a summary of this important law. We have a lot more information on Section 230 in our legal guide. We suggest you begin by reading the page on Immunity for Online Publishers Under the Communications Decency Act or check out the resources we've compiled at the bottom of this page.