8.01-49.1 - Liability for defamatory material on the Internet. - Virginia Statutes

§ 8.01-49.1. Liability for defamatory material on the Internet.

A. No provider or user of an interactive computer service on the Internetshall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided toit by another information content provider. No provider or user of aninteractive computer service shall be liable for (i) any action voluntarilytaken by it in good faith to restrict access to, or availability of, materialthat the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious,excessively violent, harassing, or intended to incite hatred on the basis ofrace, religious conviction, color, or national origin, whether or not suchmaterial is constitutionally protected, or (ii) any action taken to enable,or make available to information content providers or others, the technicalmeans to restrict access to information provided by another informationcontent provider.

B. Definitions. As used in this section:

"Information content provider" means any person or entity that isresponsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development ofinformation provided through the Internet or any other interactive computerservice.

"Interactive computer service" means any information service, system, oraccess software provider that provides or enables computer access by multipleusers to a computer server, including specifically a service or system thatprovides access to the Internet and such systems operated or services offeredby libraries or educational institutions.

"Internet" means the international computer network of interoperablepacket-switched data networks.

(2000, c. 930.)