Seeking Alpha editor: We did not disclose anonymous source

Eli Hoffmann, senior vice president and editor in chief of Seeking Alpha, writes about the resolution of its case with Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn, who wanted the financial site to disclose the name of an anonymous writer who disclosed one of Einhorn’s investments.

Hoffmann writes, “We were about to file our opposition to this petition, but Greenlight dropped the suit of its own accord. We did not at any time disclose the author’s identity formally or informally, and at no time were our actions dictated by reaching any sort of deal with Greenlight.

“So why did they drop the case? It seems they were able to contact the author, who convinced Greenlight that he had built his thesis by joining the dots on publicly-available information.

“We’re pleased this has ended. But given the appropriate opportunity, we will defend our position when challenged. This is not the first demand we have had to disclose pseudonymous authors’ identities; we have yet to disclose author identity in any claim submitted to court.

“Platforms such as Seeking Alpha are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an ‘interactive computer service’ who publish information provided by others. This doesn’t stop attempts to file pre-action motions to try and get to specific posters, but so far our experience has been that the claims get shut down or withdrawn.”

Read more here. Einhorn has posted in the comments section that the statement “who convinced Greenlight that he had built his thesis by joining the dots on publicly-available information” is materially incorrect.