Dear All,
Today, the Wikimedia Foundation joined other companies and organizations,
including
Change.org, Engine, Medium, and GitHub in filing an amicus
brief[1] to the California Supreme Court supporting Yelp’s appeal of a
removal order issued in the case of Hassell v. Bird. This case could set
important precedent that will affect free speech online.
Procedurally, the case is quite complicated. There’s a vivid summary
available on Eric Goldman’s Technology and Marketing Law Blog if you would
like more detailed background.[2] Briefly, Hassell didn’t like some of its
Yelp reviews, and sued Bird, but didn’t give Yelp notice of the lawsuit.
When Bird failed to show up, Hassell got a default judgment [3], then
promptly turned around and asked the court to force Yelp to take the
reviews down. The court issued the order, and Yelp appealed to the
California Supreme Court.
As we argued in our letter to the court encouraging them to hear the case
in August 2016 [4], this result is contrary to the immunity granted to
websites that host user-contributed content under the Communications
Decency Act.[5] Platforms must receive notice of such proceedings, so they
have an opportunity to defend users’ online speech. Additionally, websites
should not face contempt-of-court charges or other liability, particularly
when they were deprived of the chance to participate in the underlying
case. The immunity that allows websites like the Wikimedia projects to host
user-contributed content must be preserved.
We will keep you updated on this case, and announce the court’s ruling when
it is handed down. As always, we'll continue to keep an eye out for cases
in which to file amicus briefs, and other opportunities to protect the
projects.
Best,
Jan
[1]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Amicus_Brief_of_WMF_et_al_in_Hass…
[2]
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2016/06/yelp-forced-to-remove-defamato…
[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_judgment
[4]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/08/16/hassell-v-bird/
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/08/16/hassell-v-bird/>
[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act
==
Jan Gerlach
Public Policy Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org