Barrett v. Rosenthal案判决书第31-33页原文：
Smith sent an e-mail to the operator of a Web site devoted to museum security and stolen art, accusing Batzel of possessing paintings that may have been stolen by the Nazis during World War II. The operator posted the message on the Web site, with some changes, and distributed it to the subscribers of his e-mail newsletter. Batzel sued Smith and the operator for defamation. The trial court denied the operator’s motion to strike the complaint under the California anti-SLAPP statute (Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16). (Batzel, at pp. 1020-1023.)

The court of appeals vacated the order denying the motion, remanded, and directed the trial court to determine whether the operator should reasonably have known Smith intended his e-mail to be published on the Internet. If not, the court reasoned the message was not “provided” by another “information content provider” under section 230, and the operator would not be immune from liability.20 (Batzel v. Smith, supra, 333 F.3d at p. 1035.) The relevant discussion for our purposes arose from the dissent expressed in a concurring and dissenting opinion.

The Batzel dissent criticized the majority for adopting a rule that provides Internet intermediaries with immunity to spread information intended for republication, “licens[ing] professional rumor-mongers and gossip-hounds to spread false and hurtful information with impunity.” (Batzel v. Smith, supra, at p. 1038 (conc. & dis. opn. of Gould, J.).) The dissent proposed a rule based on the defendant’s actions instead of the author’s intent. It would “hold that the CDA immunizes a defendant only when the defendant took no active role in selecting the questionable information for publication. If the defendant took an active role in selecting information for publication, the information is no longer ‘information provided by another’ within the meaning of § 230.” (Ibid.)

The dissent reasoned that information actively selected for republication has been “transformed . . . bolstered, [and] strengthened to do more harm if it is wrongful.” (Batzel v. Smith, supra, 333 F.3d at p. 1038 (conc. & dis. opn. of Gould, J.).) It acknowledged that service providers cannot be expected to screen the millions of messages sent over their networks for offensive content. However, it argued that a person who does actively screen communications to select some for republication is able to detect defamatory content and should not be immunized. The dissent would grant immunity to bulletin board moderators and the like if they did not actively select among messages for publication, but would expose them to liability if they made a conscious decision to disseminate a particular defamatory communication. Congress’s goal of encouraging selfregulation would be furthered, according to the dissent, because those who remove all or part of an offensive message would be immune. The dissenting justice did not believe Congress intended to immunize those who select defamatory information for distribution on the Internet. (Id. at pp. 1039-1040.) 21

The Batzel majority responded that no logical distinction can be drawn between a defendant who actively selects information for publication and one who screens submitted material, removing offensive content. “The scope of the immunity cannot turn on whether the publisher approaches the selection process as one of inclusion or removal, as the difference is one of method or degree, not substance.” (Batzel v. Smith, supra, 333 F.3d at p. 1032.) [b]We agree with this reasoning. Furthermore, we reject the dissent’s view that actively selected and republished information is no longer “information provided by another information content provider” under section 230(c)(1). All republications involve a “transformation” in some sense. A user who actively selects and posts material based on its content fits well within the traditional role of “publisher.” Congress has exempted that role from liability.

As Rosenthal points out, the congressional purpose of fostering free speech on the Internet supports the extension of section 230 immunity to active individual “users.” It is they who provide much of the “diversity of political discourse,” the pursuit of “opportunities for cultural development,” and the exploration of “myriad avenues for intellectual activity” that the statute was meant to protect. (§ 230(a)(3).) The approach taken by the Batzel dissent would tend to chill the free exercise of Internet expression, and could frustrate the goal of providing an incentive for self-regulation. A user who removed some offensive content might face liability for “actively selecting” the remaining material. Users in this position, no less than the service providers discussed by the Zeran court, would be motivated to delete marginally offensive material, restricting the scope of online discussion. Some users, at least those like Rosenthal who engage in high-volume Internet posting, might be discouraged from screening third party content. Although individual users may face the threat of liability less frequently than institutional service providers, their lack of comparable financial and legal resources makes that threat no less intimidating.

We conclude there is no basis for deriving a special meaning for the term “user” in section 230(c)(1), or any operative distinction between “active” and “passive” Internet use. By declaring that no “user” may be treated as a “publisher” of third party content, Congress has comprehensively immunized republication by individual Internet users.

Barrett v. Rosenthal案判决书第33页结论原文节选：
The prospect of blanket immunity for those who intentionally redistribute defamatory statements on the Internet has disturbing implications. Nevertheless, by its terms section 230 exempts Internet intermediaries from defamation liability for republication. The statutory immunity serves to protect online freedom of expression and to encourage self-regulation, as Congress intended. Section 230 has been interpreted literally. It does not permit Internet service providers or users to be sued as "distributors," nor does it expose "active users" to liability.