Google was not liable for allegedly defamatory comments posted about Davison on Google’s hosted service at blogger.com, despite the online service giant having kept the comments up even after being told about them. This was because the author of the allegations insisted that the comments were true. The High Court ruled that there was no realistic prospect of Davison establishing that notification of her complaint fixed Google with actual knowledge of unlawful activity or it would have been apparent that the activity was unlawful. Google had to face conflicting claims between Davison and the author, and it was not clear to Google who was right.
Under the E-Commerce Regulations, web service providers can be liable for material that they host if they have actual knowledge of unlawful activity, but they can avoid liability if they expeditiously remove the unlawful material.
Despite this ruling, the best advice for any website service provider to avoid the risk of liability would be to have clear terms and conditions that allow it to take down material, and then to do so at the first suggestion that it is going to get caught in any cross fire.
Details of the case can be found here: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2011/3031.html.