Craigslist not liable for ad bias

Craigslist is not liable for discriminatory housing ads posted on its website, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The decision is a victory for the Internet bulletin board, on which more than 30 million people a month post offers to buy, sell or rent goods and services, including housing, free of charge.

A group of Chicago lawyers sued the site in 2006 because some of its housing notices illegally discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion and ethnicity.

Various ads say “no minorities” or “no children.”

Declaring such preferences violates the U.S. Fair Housing Act and would be illegal in a newspaper.

But a three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday found that Craigslist is not the publisher of the ads, as a newspaper would be.