Judge Rules News Station Is Immune From 'Cyber Libel' Resulting From Commenters

A federal court has dismissed news anchor Toni Miles' claim that her former employer, Raycom Media's WLOX-TV, committed "cyber libel" by allowing readers to post unfiltered comments about her. U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. in the Southern District of Mississippi ruled that the federal Communications Decency Act immunized the news station from liability for readers' posts. "Persons who claim that they were harmed by a website's publication of user-generated content may sue the third-party user who generated that content, but they may not sue the interactive computer service that enabled the third-party user to publish the content online," Judge Guirola wrote. "Thus, an interactive computer service is entitled to immunity as long as it did not create or author the particular information at issue." In dismissing the libel claim, Judge Guirola noted that Miles did not allege that the article was false -- which is necessary to prove defamation.