Zeran v. America Online, Inc.
1997 Federal Court Case
Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997), is a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit determined the immunity of Internet service providers for wrongs committed by their users under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The statute states that "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 Fourth Circuit held that plaintiff Kenneth Zeran's claims of malfeasance by America Online were barred by the statute, holding that Section 230 "creates a federal immunity to any cause of action that would make service providers liable for information originating with a third-party user of the service."
Facts
On April 25, 1995, six days after the Oklahoma City bombing, a message was anonymously posted on the America Online (AOL) "Michigan Military Movement" bulletin board advertising items with slogans glorifying the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. These items included slogans such as, "Visit Oklahoma ... It's a BLAST!!!", "Putting the kids to bed ... Oklahoma 1995", and "McVeigh for President 1996". Persons interested in making a purchase were instructed to call the plaintiff, Kenneth Zeran, whose home phone number was posted in the message but who had neither posted the message nor had anything to do with its content. Shortly after the posting of the message, Zeran began receiving a barrage of threatening calls. He contacted AOL to have the message removed, which they soon did.
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