The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a bid by child pornography victims to overcome a legal shield for internet companies in a case involving a lawsuit accusing Reddit Inc of violating federal law by failing to rid the discussion website of this illegal content.
The justices turned away the appeal of a lower court’s decision to dismiss the proposed class action lawsuit on the grounds that Reddit was shielded by a U.S. statute called Section 230, which safeguards internet companies from lawsuits for content posted by users but has an exception for claims involving child sex trafficking.
The Supreme Court on May 19 sidestepped an opportunity to narrow the scope of Section 230 immunity in a separate case.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects “interactive computer services” by ensuring they cannot be treated as the “publisher or speaker” of information provided by users.
The Reddit case explored the scope of a 2018 amendment to Section 230 called the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), which allows lawsuits against internet companies if the underlying claim involves child sex trafficking.
Reddit allows users to post content that is moderated by other users in forums called subreddits. The case centers on sexually explicit images and videos of children posted to such forums by users.
The plaintiffs – the parents of minors and a former minor who were the subjects of the images – sued Reddit in 2021 in federal court in California, seeking monetary damages.
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