Pham

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Dr. Pham operates an ophthalmology clinic in San José. His patients included Young Lee (the Lees’ father) and Chinh Tri Truong (the Lees’ grandmother). The statements at issue arose in connection with Dr. Pham’s treatment of Young Lee and Chinh Tri Truong. A. The Complaint On July 12, 2012, Dr. Pham filed a complaint against the Lees in Santa Clara County Superior Court alleging a single cause of action—defamation. The complaint alleged that the Lees posted “false, inaccurate, and/or defamatory” statements about Dr. Pham’s business practices on various Web sites. The complaint also alleged that the Lees knew or should have known the statements were false, and that they made the statements “with malice and intent to injure plaintiffs business and business reputation.” Dr. Pham attached three exhibits to the complaint, which appear to be printouts of the Lees’ online reviews of Dr. Pham’s business practices. Exhibit A to the complaint is a printout of the profile page from the Web site Yelp.com (Yelp) for an individual identified as “Alvin ‘chipmunk20’ L.” The profile, which includes the individual’s photograph, specifies his location as Davis,…