Communications Decency Act § 230
ISPs lobbied
Congress to overturn Stratton. They argued that so much information flowed
through their systems that imposing “publisher liability” for defamation would
stunt the growth of the Internet as they struggled with an unsupportable
technological and economic burden. The
argument succeeded. Stratton was overturned in 1996 by Communications Decency Act § 230
(47
No
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.
The following
questions work through this section.