Developments in SLAPP Law

The Court of Appeal began its analysis of the first prong by highlighting the third category of protected activities in § 425.16(e): “any written or oral statement or writing made in a place open to the public or a public forum in connection with an issue of public interest.” The Court divided the first prong’s analysis into two stages. In the first stage, the Court determined whether a publicly accessible website constitutes a public forum, and found that it does, as “Internet postings on websites that ‘are open and free to anyone who wants to read the messages’ and ‘accessible free of charge to any member of the public’ satisfies the public forum requirement of section 425.16.”[18]

In the second stage, the Court asked whether the content of the Dupré Reports represented an issue of public interest, and found that it did because the reports alleged that Zhongwang was artificially inflating reported sales and allegations of “mismanagement or investor scams” made against a publicly traded company constitute an “issue of public interest” for purposes of the anti-SLAPP law.