Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

by Kyle Chayka

The precedent for Section 230 came from two 1990s cases. In 1991, Cubby v. CompuServe began as a conflict between two digital media companies. Robert Blanchard’s Cubby Inc., publisher of a news service called Skuttlebutt, sued Don Fitzpatrick’s publication Rumorville because it had published an article that defamed Skuttlebutt. Rumorville was available on an online forum hosted by CompuServe, an early provider of home Internet that was a major force in the 1990s. Blanchard sued CompuServe itself as well as Fitzpatrick. The US District Court concluded that CompuServe was only a distributor, not a publisher of the allegedly defamatory content. In other words, as a host, CompuServe acted more like a newsstand or bookstore. It didn’t control the contents of what got published, just how the material reached consumers.