Weddingbee

Hello ladies, Mr. Bee here. Some of our bees recently asked about the legal risk of posting vendor rants and raves. Some of these issues have come up in my day job, so I thought I’d comment a bit.

Basically, “C” is absolutely right when she says:

As for the Knot, under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (safe harbor for ISPs and forum operators), they are not liable for comments posted by users of their site, even if the comments do end up being defamatory. They might be more worried about loss in potential ad revenue/sponsorship by vendors rather than lawsuits.

One caveat though. From what I understand (and IANAL), this broad liability exception applies nicely to message boards; however, it would not necessarily apply to sites with an editorial process. For example, the New York Times couldn’t use Section 230 to claim that they are immune to defamation claims.

So which one is Weddingbee? I would have to ask an attorney to be sure, but my general sense is:

• The Weddingbee posts themselves probably do create liability for Weddingbee, since they are approved by hand
• Any comments probably do not

That said, every post and comment in Weddingbee should be as truthful as possible. As someone said in the comments, the greatest defense against defamation is the truth. Weddingbee will never publish something it knows to be untrue. Our reputation is what’s most important to us, and so we will continue to champion the rights of brides.

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