Court Rules Yahoo! Can Be Sued For Fake Profile

Last Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Oregon resident Cecilia Barnes can sue Yahoo! Inc. for failing to make good on a promise to remove a fake, lewd profile posted by her ex-boyfriend.

The court’s ruling doesn’t change the fact that publishers of web content aren’t necessarily liable for what their users post, but they did find that Yahoo! may be liable for a broken promise in this specific case.


Barnes first filed a lawsuit in March, 2005 after making several attempts to get Yahoo! to remove profiles created by her ex-boyfriend, which according to the decision written by 9th Circuit Judge Diarmuid F.

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