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_Hassell_v_Bird.pdf

[2] http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2016/06/yelp-forced-to-remove-defamatory-reviews-hassell-v-bird.htm

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_judgment

[4] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/08/16/hassell-v-bird/

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act

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Jan Gerlach
Public Policy Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
jgerlach@wikimedia.org