The Ninth Circuit Limits Immunity From Negligent Failure To Warn Cases Under The Communications Decency Act

Last week, the Ninth Circuit limited the ability of websites and online services to use Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) to shield themselves from failure to warn lawsuits arising out of the offline conduct of their users. Although the circuit court's opinion in Beckman v. Match.com, No. 13-16324 (9th Cir. Sept. 1, 2016) is unpublished, it creates a potentially troubling gap in the immunity afforded to online services from suits based on the conduct of their users.

Communications Decency Act

The CDA creates federal immunity to any cause of action that would make online service providers liable for information originating from users of the service. Specifically, section 230(c)(1) of the CDA states that " [n]o 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." See 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1). The CDA defines an interactive computer service