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tonyPick writes:

Over at Science is a story on the attempts of Wayne State University cancer researcher Falzul Sarkar to sue PubPeer commenters for defamation.

Fazlul Sarkar, a cancer researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, had threatened legal action after the University of Mississippi rescinded its offer of a tenured, $350,000-per-year position. Sarkar, who remains employed at Wayne state, claimed that anonymous comments suggesting misconduct in his research caused the university to revoke its offer.

Although Sarkar is not suing PubPeer itself he is attempting to force the site to hand over identifying information on the anonymous commenters. From an article in Retraction Watch.

Sarkar’s attorney acknowledges that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects PubPeer itself from a suit. He will try, however, to convince a court that PubPeer has an obligation to turn over commenters’ identifying information. The argument here is that the site allowed comments that violated its own policy, and that some of the comments referred to a complaint filed with Wayne State that should have been kept confidential.

There are more details in an article over at Retraction Watch which also has an earlier background article.