Omegle Can Be Sued for Matching Child With Sexual Predator, Says Court

Chat service Omegle is on the hook for a lawsuit after its matching system paired an 11-year-old girl with a man who then sexually abused her. A district judge in Portland, Oregon, said the company's system wasn't protected by the legal shield that covers much user-generated content. From a report: The case isn't concluded, but it opens the door to more prosecutions based on how a platform designs its services. The legal complaint, filed late last year, alleges that Omegle's service was defective and falsely represented. It's a common strategy that's often failed in court before, including with Grindr in a harassment case, typically due to the legal protections of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This time, however, Judge Michael Mosman determined that the lawsuit targeted functions specifically designed by Omegle rather than speech by other users on the platform.

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