Yelp! (“Yelp”) isn’t happy.A California judge ordered the review site to remove a defamatory posting. Yelp, for its part, felt the decision defied Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and appealed — but lost.Will the ruling affect future Yelp defamation claims? Will business owners be helped or hurt by this turn of events?Let’s review the case and discuss the potential implications for SMBs.

Background Summary: Business Owner Sues For Defamation Over Yelp Review

We live in the Age of Online Reviews, so it happens all the time. A service provider clashes with a client. Eager to share his displeasure with the world, said client (in the spirit of “warning others”) takes to Yelp and posts a scathing — often hyperbolic — negative review. Within days, the target’s inquiries come to a grinding halt.

It’s every business owner’s worst nightmare, and it happened to an attorney a few years back — so she sued for online defamation.

Who won?

To shorten a long story, the client failed to appear in court, which triggered a default win, and the judge ordered Yelp to remove the defamatory review.

Yelp’s Position: Forcing Content Removal Defies Section 230 of the CDA

But Yelp didn’t want to remove the review.

In its defense, the review website argued insufficient governance, maintaining that Yelp wasn’t party to the lawsuit, and subsequently not subservient to the court in this matter. Yelp also reasoned that the removal order contravened Section 230 of the CDA, which gives immunity to websites dragged into lawsuits involving defamatory user content. Or, to put it another way, it’s the law that stops users from suing, say, Facebook (or even Yelp) over another user’s post.

Now, please don’t read us wrong: you CAN sue individuals who post libelous statements, but not the social media platform on which the contested statement sits. (Section 230 applies to most social media sites. The rules, however, vary for blogs, news sites and other informational platforms that can legally be deemed “the publisher”).

Excerpt From Yelp Defamation Removal Lawsuit

“Yelp’s claimed interest in maintaining its site as it deems appropriate does not include the right to second-guess a final court judgment establishing that statements by a third party are defamatory and thus unprotected by the First Amendment.”

Why Doesn’t Yelp Want To Remove Defamatory Reviews?

Why is Yelp against weeding the site of defamatory posts? In its estimation, removing content is a free speech predicament, so the company spares no expense in defending removal requests.

A spokesperson for the review aggregator explained: “The ruling undermines the free speech and due process rights of consumer reviewers and the online platforms that host their content. In a single jumbled ruling, the court managed to contravene and contort longstanding precedent concerning the First Amendment, constitutional due process and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.”

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, or CDA, says, “No 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.”

Court’s Reasoning: Asking Yelp To Remove Defamatory Review Doesn’t Have Anything To Do With Section 230 In This Case

According to the court, the removal order wasn’t legally damaging, and therefore fell outside the Section 230 sphere. In other words, since Yelp wouldn’t face imminent legal injury by deleting the defamatory post, the removal order doesn’t interfere with the CDA.

And on a technical note, according to the ruling, Yelp allegedly filed its protest motion too late.

Who Can I Talk To About My Yelp Defamation Issue?

Dealing with a defamatory Yelp review? We can help. Our team has assisted countless small- and medium-sized business owners overcome setbacks related to damaging Yelp reviews. Not every case requires a lawsuit. In many instances, we’ve been able to rectify the situation without filing a claim.

Contact us now. We’ll discuss your situation, (even vent about Yelp if you want), and then start formulating a plan — that’s both effective and budget conscious — to reverse the damage done by Yelp defamation.