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Free Expression

Court Decision Protects Free Speech Online

At the urging of CDT, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an "amended" decision in the Barnes v. Yahoo! Case, correcting two serious errors that had been included in the court’s initial decision. In May, CDT and others had filed a "friend of the court" brief urging the court to delete language that limited service providers’ ability to be protected by "Section 230," a provision which enhances free speech online by protecting service providers from liability for content posted by their users.  The court made the exact changes that both Yahoo! (as a party) and CDT, Public Citizen, and others that had signed onto the original brief had urged.

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