Editing comments does not make you legally liable

David Ardia, on legal liability for comments online from Nieman Journalism Lab on Vimeo.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, editing comments does not make a news organization legally liable.

Please watch the above video with David Ardia. Show it to your coworkers, editors — especially your editors. Most importantly, show this video to people who say that news organizations can’t edit comments on their Web sites because they’ll be held legally liable. That’s not true, and it hasn’t been true in more than a decade.

This falsehood must stop now. It’s been used — knowingly and unknowingly — by news organizations for years as  justification not to allow user comments.

The only instance in which it is true that a news organization could be held liable for a users comments is if a news organization materially changes a comment to make it libelous. A misplaced “not” by an editor, for instance, could completely change the meaning of a user’s comment. News organizations, however, should not be employing editors who materially change the meaning of someone else’s content.

Here are Ardia’s five take-a-way points:

• The first is if you passively host third-party content you are going to be fully protected under Section 230.
• If you exercise traditional editorial functions over user submitted content, such as deciding whether to publish, remove or edit material, you will not lose your immunity unless your edits materially change the meaning of the content.
• If you pre-screen objectionable content, correct or edit or remove content after publication, you are not going to lose immunity.
• If you encourage or pay third parties to create or submit content, you will not lose immunity.
• If you use dropdown forms or multiple-choice questionnaires, you should be cautious of allowing users to submit information through these forms in a neutral way.

Watch the video and let us know if you have any questions about specific situations dealing with user comments/content and editing that might be ambiguous. We’ll take those questions and ask lawyers for answers.