united-states internet
What legal concerns may be caused by featuring a post on meta?
<p>Recently <a href="https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/392867/in-case-you-missed-it-shog9-and-robert-cartaino-are-no-longer-staff-members-at">a post</a> on Meta StackOverflow got unfeatured by SE employee, with the <a href="https://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/392953/113662">explanation</a> that it was done because of some "legal concerns."<br>
Given that:</p>

<ol>
<li><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/342031/thank-you-shog9">similar</a> <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/342079/thank-you-robert-cartaino">posts</a> exist on main Meta and are featured there, and</li>
<li>the problematic post is still present on MSO, only that the "featured" tag got removed from it</li>
</ol>

<p>What kind of legal concerns might cause such an action? If the post content is problematic, only removing the post (or the problematic part) would help. Featuring posts is a responsibility of moderators, who represent the community, not the company, so I don't think there is a risk of treating the post (or its being featured) as a statement coming from company. So what concerns might be present here?</p>

<h2>Risk</h2>

<p>Assuming there the post has or, more likely, has the potential to become a legal liability then not having it featured reduces the risk of that occurring or the consequences if it does because fewer people see it.</p>

<p>For example, assume that a hypothetical post potentially exposes SE to a defamation suit. Reducing the number of people who see the post reduces the chance that the hypothetical poster ever sees it. Further, damages for defamation depend on the extent of damage to reputation - all else being equal, the more people who see it the more damage is done.</p>

<p>So why not get rid of it and eliminate the risk altogether? Because legal risk is only one sort of business risk. SE has a reputational risk issue right now and the consequences of being too heavy handed may outweigh the legal risk. Some risks just have to be accepted.</p>
