Airbnb’s legal argument: Don’t hold us accountable for the actions of our hosts
Los Angeles Times:
[Airbnb] filed a lawsuit on Monday against its home city of San Francisco, alleging a new ordinance that would fine short-term rental firms for not proactively removing unregistered property listings from their websites and apps violates the Communications Decency Act, the Stored Communications Act and the 1st Amendment.
Though it might seem strange for Internet companies to get a free pass when their users break the law en masse, legal experts have described Airbnb’s invocation of the Communications Decency Act, or CDA, as a “slam dunk” because the act is so expansive.
It’s the reason web forums, review sites and social media companies can exist without fear of being sued for what their users post, according to Gautam Hans, director of the Center for Democracy & Technology, and it’s a defense frequently used by companies such as Google and Facebook.
“Someone might file a defamation lawsuit against them for something a user wrote, and the company counters with Section 230 of the CDA,” Hans said. “Many private individuals don’t know about its existence.”
