Davenport University is a private institution in Grand Rapids, Mich., with an undergraduate enrollment below 6,000 students. The school maintains 27 varsity athletic programs that compete in the NCAA’s Division II, where they have mostly languished in national obscurity.
Yet a quick Google search leads to a place where the Davenport Panthers have drawn notice, though not for the reasons the school might hope. Scroll briefly and you shall happen upon a heaping—albeit neatly consolidated—pile of criticism portraying DU as an exceptionally awful place to play sports.
On 2aDays.com, an online platform where athletes can anonymously review college athletic programs, facilities and personnel, Davenport has received strikingly low marks from what appears to be a sizable pool of critics. As of Monday, the university held a 1.4 out of 5-star rating from 697 reviews, and only 11% of respondents said they would recommend it to prospective athletes.
[ . . . ]Legal experts consulted by Sportico note that online platforms generally retain their legal immunity when repackaging anonymous allegations, even if they are defamatory, provided they do not materially contribute to or develop those claims.
“If it is clearly user content, that is not going to void Section 230 protections,” said Jeff Kosseff, a law professor and non-resident senior fellow at Vanderbilt University’s The Future of Free Speech.
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Jeff Kosseff is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow for The Future of Free Speech. He writes about online speech, the First Amendment, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.