This issue was at the center of a California lawsuit in 2013, when a San Francisco legal firm took Yelp to court, requesting the removal of negative reviews from their site. A lawyer at the firm claimed a former client had defamed her on Yelp and accused her of misconduct that never occurred; when that client would not reply to a direct lawsuit asking to take down the posts, the lawyer took her suit to the review site. The judge agreed the statements posted were defamatory and ordered their removal. A subsequent appeals court upheld the decision.
This case has made its way through the state’s judiciary system and in September of 2016, was placed on the docket to be reviewed by the California Supreme Court. The point of debate lies in the precedent this case might set. Yelp claims that upholding the ruling to take down the posts would open the door for other businesses to do the same. Other Internet powerhouses, like Facebook and Microsoft, have been vocal in their support of Yelp. Company leaders penned a letter to the court saying such a ruling would “silence a vast quantity of protected and important speech.”
