Ninth Circuit Interprets FOSTA Restriction On Section 230 Narrowly

On October 24, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act¹ shielded Reddit Inc. from liability under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPA).² The court considered the text of a 2018 amendment to Section 230, known as the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA),³ which created a carve-out to Section 230's broad protections by allowing victims to bring claims against platforms that aided in their trafficking. The Ninth Circuit held that the FOSTA exception does not apply where a provider does not "knowingly benefit" from such trafficking.⁴ This is the first time that a federal court of appeals has interpreted how broadly the FOSTA exception to Section 230 applies.