Another Court Says Facebook Isn’t a State Actor–McWaters v. Houston

McWaters was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a minor, but the grand jury didn’t issue an indictment. He sued various defendants for publicizing the accusations. Among others, he sued Facebook for allegedly engaging in discriminatory content moderation in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. That argument doesn’t seem to make sense here, but it’s inconsequential because Facebook isn’t a state actor:

Facebook, as a social media company, does not become a state actor based solely on the availability of its social media network to the public, even if Facebook is alleged to have discriminatorily regulated speech on its forum. [cites to Ebeid, Nyabwa, Shulman, Howard, Kinderstart, Langdon, Cyber Promotions]

Simply put, no matter how discriminatory Facebook’s actions are alleged to be in policing the content of its forum posts, Facebook nevertheless is a private entity and does not engage in state action. As a result, the Fourteenth Amendment provides no recourse to McWaters

Case citation: McWaters v. Houston, 2022 WL 395309 (M.D. Ala. Feb. 8, 2022)

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• The First Amendment Protects Twitter’s Fact-Checking and Account Suspension Decisions–O’Handley v. Padilla
• One More Time: Facebook Isn’t a State Actor–Atkinson v. Facebook
• Two More Courts Tell Litigants That Social Media Services Aren’t State Actors
• Government Jawboning Doesn’t Turn Internet Services into State Actors–Doe v. Google
• Anti-Zionist Loses Lawsuit Over Social Media Account Suspensions–Martillo v. Facebook
• Court Nopes Another Lawsuit Over Facebook Suspensions–Orders v. Facebook
• Facebook Defeats Lawsuit By Publishers of Vaccine (Mis?)information–Children’s Health Defense v. Facebook
• Court Rejects Lawsuit Alleging YouTube Engaged in Racially Biased Content Moderation–Newman v. Google
• Yet Another Court Says Facebook Isn’t a State Actor–Brock v. Zuckerberg
• YouTube (Again) Defeats Lawsuit Over Content Removal–Lewis v. Google
• When It Came to @RealDonaldTrump, Twitter Couldn’t Please Everyone–Rutenberg v. Twitter
• Another Must-Carry Lawsuit Against YouTube Fails–Daniels v Alphabet
• Newspaper Isn’t State Actor–Plotkin v. Astorian
• An Account Suspension Case Fails Again–Perez v. LinkedIn
• Are Social Media Services “State Actors” or “Common Carriers”?
• Google and Twitter Defeat Lawsuit Over Account Suspensions/Terminations–DeLima v. Google
• More Plaintiffs (and Lawyers) Need To Be Reminded That YouTube Isn’t a State Actor–Divino v. Google
• Facebook Isn’t a Constructive Public Trust–Cameron Atkinson v. Facebook
• Google and YouTube Aren’t “Censoring” Breitbart Comments–Belknap v. Alphabet
• LinkedIn Isn’t a State Actor–Perez v. LinkedIn
• Section 230 Preempts Another Facebook Account Termination Case–Zimmerman v. Facebook
• Section 230 Ends Demonetized YouTuber’s Lawsuit–Lewis v. Google
• Court Rejects Another Lawsuit Alleging that Internet Companies Suppress Conservative Views–Freedom Watch v. Google
• Another Suspended Twitter User Loses in Court–Wilson v. Twitter
• First Voters Reject Tulsi Gabbard, Then a Judge Does–Gabbard v. Google
• YouTube Isn’t a State Actor (DUH)–PragerU v. Google
• Facebook Still Isn’t Obligated to Publish Russian Troll Content–FAN v. Facebook
• Vimeo Defeats Lawsuit for Terminating Account That Posted Conversion Therapy Videos–Domen v. Vimeo
• Russia Fucked With American Democracy, But It Can’t Fuck With Section 230–Federal Agency of News v. Facebook
• Private Publishers Aren’t State Actors–Manhattan Community Access v. Halleck
• Your Periodic Reminder That Facebook Isn’t a State Actor–Williby v. Zuckerberg
• Section 230 Protects Facebook’s Account and Content Restriction Decisions–Ebeid v. Facebook
• Court Tosses Antitrust Claims That Internet Giants Are Biased Against Conservatives–Freedom Watch v. Google
• Twitter Isn’t a Shopping Mall for First Amendment Purposes (Duh)–Johnson v. Twitter
• YouTube Isn’t a Company Town (Duh)–Prager University v. Google
• Facebook Defeats Lawsuit By User Suspended Over ‘Bowling Green Massacre’–Shulman v. Facebook
• Yelp, Twitter and Facebook Aren’t State Actors–Quigley v. Yelp
• Facebook Not Liable for Account Termination–Young v. Facebook
• Online Game Network Isn’t Company Town–Estavillo v. Sony
• Third Circuit Says Google Isn’t State Actor–Jayne v. Google Founders
• Ask.com Not Liable for Search Results or Indexing Decisions–Murawski v. Pataki
• Search Engines Defeat “Must-Carry” Lawsuit–Langdon v. Google
• KinderStart Lawsuit Dismissed (With Leave to Amend)
• ICANN Not a State Actor