TripAdvisor NOT Getting Sued

[The Moose]

I have an idea for a website, similar to TripAdvisor (not rating hotels/restaurants etc) and I wanted to understand how they got around being sued for hosting negative reviews when forums like PH avoid negative reviews of companies.

[The Moose]

So TripAdvisor actually has no liability for publishing the reviews? Interesting.

I’m not sure I fully understand why forums can get sued but TA can’t. Interesting.

[The Moose]

DodgyGeezer said:

probably an aggravation factor comes into things too AT/MSE are (I would imagine) a LOT bigger than PH

That I’m sure is true…but not so helpful if I start a new website

[The Moose]

L0gan5 said:

StevieBee said:

TripAdvisor and similar are benign platforms. In simple terms, they are not publishers but enable anyone to publish their thoughts on their platform. Think of it like a placard. If someone wrote a defamatory message about you and stood outside your house with it, would you take issue with them or the company that provided the materials to make the placard?

Moneysavingexpert and similar are publishers. If they write a bad review then providing that review is objective and based on evidence, then there is no legal recourse available to the company being reviewed.

Where it gets legally tricky is if a review overstates the problem or the author is being subjective.

They can lose their section 5 defence though if they fail to deal with any complaints correctly.

What is "Section 5" please?!