Bigger Fish, Deeper Pockets: Business Blogs, Defamation and the Communications Decency Act

Blogging is a form of online communication that encourages instantaneous postings and viewer comments. More and more businesses are creating blogs to talk about and promote their products and services. This article will focus on a business’ potential exposure to defamation liability stemming from content posted on a company-sponsored blog. The history of the Communications Decency Act in the courts indicates that companies will likely be immune from liability for defamation when the suit treats the company blog as the publisher of third party defamatory content. However, businesses that host blogs should be aware that this immunity may not extend to third party content not specifically provided to the blog for publishing, distributing or posting