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Facebook Sued Over Cyberbullying
An Oceanside, New York teenager has named Facebook, Inc., operator of the eponymous social networking site, a defendant in a $3M U.S. online defamation lawsuit. The suit alleges that four of the teenager’s classmates created a password-protected Facebook group on which they posted messages, “calculated to hold the plaintiff up to public hatred, ridicule and disgrace”. The teenager seeks to hold the four classmates, their parents and Facebook responsible for the statements. Online defamation lawsuits that name website providers as defendants are becoming increasingly common, however it remains unclear whether such suits have any legal merit. Section 230 of the U.S. federal Communications Decency Act provides immunity to interactive computer service providers such as blogs, forums, listservs, etc. for tort liability as long as the information is provided by a third party.
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http://www.newsday.com/iphone/ny-liface0312510748mar03,0,2290035.story