Muslims sue AOL

August 30, 2001 Posted: 2230 GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Current and former subscribers of AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Internet service who complained about racial harassment in online Muslim chat rooms have sued the company for not living up to its terms of service.

The group argued that AOL did not sufficiently monitor and edit out harassing incidents, some of which lasted a few minutes while others lasted hours, and that the world's largest Internet service provider monitored harassment more aggressively in other chat rooms.

Civil rights law "prohibits religious discrimination in places of public accommodation such as restaurants, hotels and recreation facilities," said Kamran Memon, the Chicago lawyer who is part of the team that filed the suit, which seeks class-action status.

"In light of the growing significance of the Internet, a public chat room should fall within this category as a place of entertainment and therefore should be free of harassment," he said in a statement.

Memon said AOL was unwilling to discuss the concerns. Courts in the past have ruled that Internet providers are not liable for language or conduct on the service.

A spokesman for the company's Dulles, Va.-based AOL Internet unit said the lawsuit was without merit, but declined to comment on the specific charges.

"AOL has zero tolerance for any hate speech on the service and we encourage all of our members to report such language when they see it," said Andrew Weinstein, the AOL spokesman. "This lawsuit is totally without merit."

While the service, which has 14,000 chat rooms, does not have active monitors, it depends on its members to watch out for incidents.

Every referral a member makes is investigated by staff, according to AOL. If they determine there is a violation of the terms of service, AOL sanctions the person with either a warning or dismissal of service, the company said.

Shares of AOL Time Warner (AOL: Research, Estimates) shares fell $2.55, or 6.6 percent, to $36 Thursday. AOL Time Warner is also the owner of CNNfn.com.

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