Issues of Online Defamation

However, given the different services of each ISP, some cases did actually not only sue the original creator of defamatory material but also the ISP. For instance, the role of the ICP looks similar to the publisher of a newspaper of magazine if they have the same editorial control over the content. In fact, the relationship between the ICP and its contracted content provider might be very complicated and there can be another contracted party responsible for the editorial control. Sometimes an ISP will hire a host as an employee or contract an independent company to manage some specific forums or content section, in which the ISP does not have editorial responsibility.

On the other hand, ISP is also unable to censor all the messages and contents posted in their website given the speedy traffic of the Internet and high interactivity. Therefore, when an ISP receive a compliant or warning from the plaintiff of a defamation case, it should seriously consider and decide whether to remove the specific messages or content in order to prevent from being liable of this defamatory content.

The Use of Disclaimers
Many ISPs or ICPs will post a disclaimer regarding the law of their countries in order to clarify their liability concerning the potential legal issues of their website content or services. However, the adoption of disclaimers and user policies to prohibit the posting of defamatory materials on the site may not give a site owner or ISP a watertight defense (Canham, 2002). Though such disclaimers usually state that the ISP or site owners are not responsible for what have been published in their sites or by their clients, they show that there are concerns of regulating the content and thus creating a possible liability of the ISP or site owner for the defamatory content.