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U.S. Appeals Court Rules Roommates.com May Be Liable for Discriminatory Content Posted to Website by Users
In a recent decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that Roommates.com, an apartment hunting website, may be liable for discriminatory content posted to the website by its users because the website itself is designed to solicit such information. The court ruled that Roommates.com was not protected under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which largely absolves Internet forums (such as social networking sites) and ISPs from responsibility for content supplied by users, given that in this case the website required users to answer questions about their gender, marital status and sexual orientation and created options for people to filter results by those categories. The court reasoned that this made the website more than a simple forum that transmitted information provided by others. As such, Roommates.com was not immune from compliance with the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits denying someone a house or a rental on the basis of age, gender, race, religion, etc. The court did confirm that Roommates.com was not responsible for information posted by users to the “additional comments” section of the website where users are free to write whatever they like, or other content provided by users that was not required or encouraged by the website.
For additional information, visit:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/roommatescom-no.html