Are Tech Firms Liable For What Their Users Post? (mercurynews.com)

Thursday Texas police officers arrested the CEO of Backpage.com, a web site allowing escorts to post classified ads, on a felony charge accusing him of pimping. Slashdot reader whoever57 writes: It is likely that the charges will not stick because of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, under which publishers are protected from liability for the postings of their users. However, this could just be the first shot in the battle to weaken section 230. This could endanger other sites, such as Craigslist, and ultimately, any site with user-written content.
Backpage calls the prosecution "frivolous," arguing that the site's classified ads for escorts are protected by the First Amendment. But a law professor at the University of Santa Clara suggests prosecutors may argue that the site had been "optimized to facilitate online prostitution ads," establishing some level of complicity.

Comments

What does the user agreement say?

[pesho]

If there is a clause in the user agreement that they own all user generated content, then these are their posts and they should be liable.

Re:Shouldn't involve the internet

[Zontar The Mindless]

There are cases where a woman have chosen to get children without the consent of the man. The case were a woman gave a man a blowjob and then saved the semen and impregnated herself with comes to mind.

Please provide a cite that isn't a film title.