Yelp Doesn't Have to Remove Negative Reviews, California High Court Says

Yelp can't be forced to remove critical third-party reviews, the California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Monday, reversing a prior Court of Appeals decision. The case stems from a 2014 lawsuit from attorney Dawn Hassell, who claimed her former client, Ava Bird, defamed her through two negative Yelp reviews. Because Bird didn't show up for court proceedings, Hassell won, and the company was ordered to remove the posts. The Court of Appeals agreed. The state high court said that court “adopted too narrow a construction of” Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and setting such a precedent “could interfere with and undermine the viability of an online platform.” The lower court improperly treated Yelp as “the publisher or speaker of . . . information provided by another information content provider,” the majority opinion said. Yelp Deputy General Counsel Aaron Schur wrote that the suit “threatened the rights of online platforms that allow people to freely share their thoughts and the billions of people that do" that. "We are disappointed in the Court’s plurality opinion, which construes the reach of the Communications Decency Act beyond its intended scope and stands as an invitation to spread falsehoods on the internet without consequence," Hassell's attorney Monique Olivier emailed, saying her client is considering all legal options, including review by the Supreme Court.