Ninth Circuit Ruling Will Force Online Platforms That Host User Speech to Fight Lengthy and Costly Lawsuits Before They Are Dismissed Under Section 230

A federal appeals court just made it harder for online services, big and small, to get lawsuits over user speech dismissed early. In California v. Meta, a Ninth Circuit three-judge panel held that the lower court’s denial of Section 230 immunity to Meta is not immediately appealable. The misguided ruling has the potential to have widespread impact and to threaten the free speech of all internet users. The ruling is bigger than a loss for Meta, which has the resources to defend itself against these lawsuits. The court’s ruling signals that all online services (and internet users) that host others’ speech—including those without Meta’s deep pockets—must bear the burden and expense of fighting lawsuits that Section 230 ultimately precludes. This will have real consequences, incentivizing online services to take down users’ speech in response to spurious legal threats, filter speech preemptively, or simply stop offering a place for people to speak online. So even though some may think that