Law Commons^™

To Catch A Catfish: A Statutory Solution For Victims Of Online Impersonation, Colleen M. Koch

University of Colorado Law Review

Though popular MTV reality show Catfish makes online impersonation seem like a lighthearted and incredible harm, it is actually an undesirable cyber behavior that carries potentially serious consequences. Despite the seriousness of the problem, social networking sites have few incentives to stop the problem, largely due to the broad immunity they are granted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which holds them entirely immune for the content posted by users of their sites. Moreover, few state statutes currently exist to address the problem, and those that do are largely ineffective. While civil liability could be a solution to …