Doe v. MySpace Inc. - 528 F.3d 413 (5th Cir. 2008)

Rule:

Under the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C.S. § 230(c), so long as a third party willingly provides the essential published content, the interactive service provider receives full immunity regardless of the specific editing or selection process.

Facts:

MySpace.com is a Web-based social network. Online social networking is the practice of using a Web site or other interactive computer service to expand one's business or social network. Social networking on MySpace.com begins with a member's creation of an online profile that serves as a medium for personal expression, and can contain such items as photographs, videos, and other information about the member that he or she chooses to share with other MySpace.com users. Members have complete discretion regarding the amount and type of information that is included in a personal profile. Members can also meet new people at MySpace.com through user groups focused on common interests such as film, travel, music, or politics. MySpace.com membership is free to all who agree to the Terms of Use. To establish a profile, users must represent that they are at least fourteen years of age. The profiles of members who are aged fourteen and fifteen are automatically set to "private" by default, in order to limit the amount of personal information that can be seen on the member's profile by MySpace.com users who are not in their existing friends network and to prevent younger teens from being contacted by users they do not know. Although MySpace.com employs a computer program designed to search for clues that underage members have lied about their age to create a profile on the Web site, no current technology is foolproof. All members are cautioned regarding the type of information they release to other users on the Web site, including a specific prohibition against posting personal information such as telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, or e-mail addresses. MySpace.com members are also encouraged to report inaccurate, inappropriate, or obscene material to the Web site's administrators.

In the summer of 2005, at age thirteen, Julie Doe ("Julie") lied about her age, represented that she was eighteen years old, and created a profile on MySpace.com. This action allowed her to circumvent all safety features of the Web site and resulted in her profile being made public; nineteen-year-old Pete Solis ("Solis") was able to initiate contact with Julie in April 2006 when she was fourteen. The two communicated offline on several occasions after Julie provided her telephone number. They met in person in May 2006, and, at this meeting, Solis sexually assaulted Julie. Julie's mother, Jane Doe, first sued MySpace, Inc., its parent company, News Corporation (collectively "MySpace"), and Solis in a Texas state court on her own behalf and on behalf of her daughter, alleging that MySpace failed to implement basic safety measures to prevent sexual predators from communicating with minors on its Web site. The Does' original petition asserted claims for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, negligence, and gross negligence against MySpace, and claims for sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Solis. The district court in Texas (after a series of transfers of venue) dismissed with prejudice the Does' claims for negligence and gross negligence, finding that the claims were barred by the CDA and Texas common law. 

Issue:

Does Section 230 immunize MySpace from the Does’ claims?

Answer:

Yes.

Conclusion:

The Does attempt to distinguish their case from Carafano, Zeran, and other contrary authority by claiming that this case is predicated solely on MySpace's failure to implement basic safety measures to protect minors. The district court, quoted with approval by the court of appeals rejected the Does' argument, stating: “It is quite obvious the underlying basis of Plaintiffs' claims is that, through postings on MySpace, Pete Solis and Julie Doe met and exchanged personal information which eventually led to an in-person meeting and the sexual assault of Julie Doe. If MySpace had not published communications between Julie Doe and Solis, including personal contact information, Plaintiffs assert they never would have met and the sexual assault never would have occurred. No matter how artfully Plaintiffs seek to plead their claims, the Court views Plaintiffs' claims as directed toward MySpace in its publishing, editorial, and/or screening capacities.” The Does do not present any caselaw to support their argument. In fact, they rely upon the same line of cases listed above but point to § 230(c)(1)'s grant of immunity to publishers of third-party content as evidence that their claims are somehow different. Other courts, however, have examined pleadings similar to the Does' and have reached the same conclusion as the district court. For example, in Green, the plaintiff sued a Web-based service provider after he received a computer virus from a third party and endured derogatory comments directed at him by others in an online "chat room." He made a failure-to-protect argument similar to the Does', claiming that "AOL waived its immunity under [§] 230 by the terms of its membership contract with him and because AOL's Community Guidelines outline standards for online speech and conduct and contain promises that AOL would protect [him] from other subscribers." The Third Circuit, however, dismissed the claims as barred by § 230, after recharacterizing the plaintiff's claims: “There is no real dispute that Green's fundamental tort claim is that AOL was negligent in promulgating harmful content and in failing to address certain harmful content on its network. Green thus attempts to hold AOL liable for decisions relating to the monitoring, screening, and deletion of content from its network--actions quintessentially related to a publisher's role. Section 230 "specifically proscribes liability" in such circumstances.” Green demonstrates the fallacy of the Does' argument. Their claims are barred by the CDA, notwithstanding their assertion that they only seek to hold MySpace liable for its failure to implement measures that would have prevented Julie Doe from communicating with Solis. Their allegations are merely another way of claiming that MySpace was liable for publishing the communications and they speak to MySpace's role as a publisher of online third-party-generated content.

The Does further argue for the first time on appeal that MySpace is not immune under the CDA because it partially created the content at issue, alleging that it facilitates its members' creation of personal profiles and chooses the information they will share with the public through an online questionnaire. The Does also contend that MySpace's search features qualify it as an "information content provider", as defined in the CDA: "The term 'information content provider' means any person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service." Nothing in the record, however, supports such a claim; indeed, Julie admitted that she lied about her age to create the profile and exchanged personal information with Solis. In the February 1, 2007 hearing before the district court, the Does admitted that Julie created the content, disclosing personal information that ultimately led to the sexual assault, but stressed that their cause of action was rooted in the fact that MySpace should have implemented safety technologies to prevent Julie and her attacker from meeting. Although the Does' complaint alleged that MySpace allowed or encouraged members to post information after a member's profile had been created, counsel for the Does reiterated in the hearing time and again that they had no complaints or allegations regarding the content of the information posted by Julie or exchanged between Julie and Solis. It appears that the reference to MySpace's solicitation of information was solely used to set up the Does' argument that MySpace failed to protect Julie by declining to implement age-verification software.

At no time before filing their appeal in this Court did the Does argue that the CDA should not apply to MySpace because it was partially responsible for creating information exchanged between Julie and Solis. Because the Does failed to present this argument to the district court, they are barred from making this argument on appeal. Thus, the appellate court, without considering the Does' content-creation argument, that their negligence and gross negligence claims are barred by the CDA, which prohibits claims against Web-based interactive computer services based on their publication of third-party content. Because we affirm the district court based upon the application of § 230(c)(1), there is no need to apply § 230(c)(2), or to assess the viability of the Does' claims under Texas common law in the absence of the CDA.