Reddit not liable for pornographic posts of underage girls

A federal judge on Monday halted discovery in a proposed class action accusing Reddit Inc. of allowing child pornography to be published on its platform by third parties, saying the case was unlikely to succeed because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

"The Ninth Circuit has held that this authority to issue a protective order allows a court to 'stay discovery when it is convinced that the plaintiff will be unable to state a claim for relief,'" U.S. District Judge James V. Selna wrote. "It is readily apparent that Section 230 immunizes Reddit from many of plaintiffs' claims."

The section essentially shields websites from liability for content posted by users. The provision has increasingly come under scrutiny by both political parties in Congress who say social media sites should take more responsibility for content they are making available.

The complaint against Reddit is one of many brought against websites accused of hosting pornography. The lawsuits accuse the companies of not doing enough to verify that women appearing in videos on their sites were of legal age at the time of filming, gave consent to be filmed and agreed the video could be posted to the internet. While the lawsuits have had mixed success in court, the pornography giant Mindgeek has taken down thousands of videos from its main site voluntarily and closed some sites it owns.

Krysta K. Pachman, Davida Brook, Arun Subramanian and Tamar Lusztig of Susman Godfrey LLP are representing the plaintiffs. The proposed class is women who said they were under age in sexually explicit videos and photos that were published on Reddit. The class is split into two groups: residents of California and New Jersey. Jane Doe No. 1 et al. v. Reddit Inc., 8:21-CV-768 (C.D. -- Cal., filed April 22, 2021).

Theane Evangelis, Kristin A. Linsley and Michael Dore of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP are representing Reddit.

Counsel for the plaintiffs could not be reached for comment by press time Monday. Sandra Chu, a spokeswoman for Reddit, declined to comment on Selna's ruling.

Douglas E. Mirell, a partner at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, who is not involved in the Reddit action, said it appears Selna will likely toss out the majority of the plaintiffs' claims.

"With respect to the federal trafficking claim, the court says that it 'does not see any indication from the facts alleged that plaintiffs would be able to state a claim,'" Mirell pointed out. "On at least that cause of action, Judge Selna might be prepared to grant the dismissal motion with leave to amend. Otherwise, I would not be surprised to see the remaining claims dismissed with prejudice."

Selna in his order said Reddit does have an obligation.

"Of course, providers of interactive computer services like Reddit do still have obligations for dealing with child sexual exploitation material," Selna wrote. But there is no private cause of action that allows the women to assert a claim against Reddit for failing to report the material as required under federal law.

Anyone who knowingly receives or distributes child pornography can be prosecuted under criminal law, but an internet platform cannot be subject to civil action, due to Section 230, the judge indicated.