Skift Take
U.S. courts have steadfastly backed TripAdvisor and its user reviews on First Amendment grounds despite the undeniable fact that a portion of its reviews are fakes.
A federal judge in Tennessee tossed out a defamation lawsuit brought against TripAdvisor by the dirtiest hotel in TripAdvisor's 2011 Dirtiest Hotels list.
Kenneth Seaton, the owner of the Grand Resort and Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, with backing from UK reputation management firm Kwikchex, which wasn't a party to the defamation suit, sought $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages from TripAdvisor.
Grand Resort topped TripAdvisor's 2011 Dirtiest Hotels list, published in January 2011, and the owner alleged that user statements about the filth in a bathtub, for example, were malicious and hurt the property's "excellent reputation."
The case hinged on whether a reasonable person would consider TripAdvisor's 2011 Di
