Do laws vary between states?

Because we live in a country that has both a federal system of government and separate state systems of government, every citizen in each state is operating under two sets of laws at the same time. Thus, here in California, I'm subject to both California's laws and the U.S. laws that Congress passes. So while state laws can vary, the federal law tends to stay the same. BTW, if there is a conflict between then, Federal law always trumps.

That said, since so many of the issues with blogging and free speech arise under the First Amendment of the Federal Constitution, that single Constitutional Right governs and protects much of our online speech.

Also, in 1996, Congress passed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (the rest of which was thrown out as an unconstitutional restriction on adult material online). Section 230, however, is a broad protections for online publishers and users of interactive computer systems and makes sure that we can't be sued when we republish material online that we've acquired from third parties.

One quick example of Section 230 at work is here on Satisfaction. If I post a product review from another website on here that ends up being libelous, Section 230 protects Satisfaction and me (as one of its users) from any liability for posting it. The original author could be sued, but we can't. It helps keep the Internet very open and free in terms of what people are allowed to say and share, which is a great boon for free speech online.