Internet Lawyers: Defamation of Character Online – Are Website Hosts Responsible For Defamatory Comments Posted On Their Websites? 

Once something defamatory is published against you or against your company, website operators become a crucial point of call in the search for who may be responsible for the original publication of the defamatory material, and also key to getting the article or site removed.
Clearly, once a website operator is notified by a victim of defamation or by the victim’s internet lawyer, that defamatory material has been published on one of their websites, they become liable to the content of such website and in the vast majority of the cases they will simply remove the content even if just to avoid litigation.