Court Shows SESTA Is Not Needed: Says Backpage Can Lose Its CDA 230 Protections If It Helped Create Illegal Content

So, in the lead up to Congress' vote on FOSTA/SESTA, we pointed out that a court in Boston was likely on the verge of ruling that Backpage was not protected by CDA 230, because of actions the site had taken. Considering that the publicly stated rationale by nearly everyone supporting FOSTA/SESTA was that it was needed to get around Backpage's CDA 230 protections, we wondered why Congress couldn't wait to see how the court ruled. Yesterday, the Judge indeed ruled against a motion to dismiss in the case of one of the plaintiffs (there were three in the case), saying that enough evidence had been presented to get around CDA 230 for the time being. The key issue: whether or not Backpage directly changed the content, making it the content creator, rather than just the service provider. Backpage has insisted that it didn't make any changes (that a user did), but the court finds that there's enough evidence to reject the motion to dismiss, and to allow the case the move forward:

The allegation in the complaint that "Backpage . . . redrafted the advertisement [of Jane Doe No. 3] to suggest she was an adult" suffices to allow the complaint by Jane Doe No. 3 to proceed in the face of the CDA's statutory immunity, which does not protect service providers when they create content, FTC v. Accusearch, Inc., 570 F.3d 1187, 1197 (10th Cir. 2009). The further discovery, while not clarifying greatly the matter, provides, drawing all reasonable inferences in Plaintiff's favor, a modicum of support for the notion that Backpage has substantively changed an ad, which then supports the information and belief allegation in the complaint. Thus, the CDA poses no bar to Jane Doe No. 3's claim at this stage of the proceedings.

On the other two plaintiffs, the court notes that merely classifying posts or removing terms that imply illegality doesn't rid the site of its protections:

Plaintiffs allege Backpage revised one advertisement regarding Jane Doe No. 1 by not only deleting words but also by adding a word.... The advertisement initially included the language "Latina shorty," which was later replaced by the words "Exotic Latina." Id. Backpage's alleged alteration of the advertisement of Jane Doe is not enough to transform Backpage from an internet service provider to the creator, even in part, of this advertisement's content. "Shorty", per the Complaint, signaled, in slang, a young girl. Id. The deletion of this word did not create content. Backpage added the word "exotic." The Complaint does not allege that the word exotic carries any special or slang meaning. Ordinarily, the word means from a foreign or distant land. In the circumstances of this advertisement as described in the complaint, the addition of the word exotic is in the nature of editorial change rather than content creation, as its addition does not substantively alter the meaning of the already provided identifier "Latina."

Separately, the court feels the need to point out that what happened to the plaintiffs, as alleged in the complaint, is horrifying. But that does not mean it's appropriate to blame a tool that was used by those doling out the horrific practices.

Finally, crediting the truthfulness of the Plaintiffs' allegations, as the law instructs, the Complaint describes unimaginable sexual abuse, repeatedly endured by each Plaintiff.... Nothing about the Court's ruling as to Jane No. 1 or No. 2 diminishes the harm suffered by each of these woman. The ruling addresses only the applicable civil law. 47 U.S.C. 230(e)(1) (creating immunity from civil and state criminal law, but not federal criminal law).

For FOSTA/SESTA supporters, they will almost certainly use this as vindication for why FOSTA/SESTA is still necessary. After all, the court ruled against them here. But, in actuality, it should again show why CDA 230 is properly calibrated. If Backpage had no direct role in creating the content, why does it make sense to hold it liable? What happened to the plaintiffs here does sound horrible. But the proper people to go after are those who actually engaged in trafficking the women. And nothing has ever stopped law enforcement from doing that. Similarly, as the court notes, Backpage is still subject to federal criminal law (and multiple reports have said that a federal grand jury has been empaneled to investigate the company's operations).

And, finally, the fact that Jane Doe 3 is able to proceed shows that Backpage can potentially face liability if there is evidence to suggest that it had a real hand in creating the content, thus removing the liability. This ruling, once again, shows why FOSTA/SESTA was not needed to get at the original stated goal of those pushing for it. Indeed, as law professor Eric Goldman points out, this ruling makes it plain that the logic behind FOSTA/SESTA is "nonsensical."