Another Tough People Search Ruling–Spindler v. Seamless
Seamless offers a customer lead tool that displays the prospect’s personal information behind a subscription paywall with try-before-you-buy options. The plaintiff sued Seamless for violations of California’s publicity rights statute and related claims. The court denies Seamless’ motion to dismiss….
Ninth Circuit Easily Rejects Jawboning Claims Against YouTube–Doe v. Google
This is one of the many MAGA lawsuits over content moderation allegedly biased against conservatives–in this case, by YouTube as part of its crackdown on conspiracy theories. The plaintiffs argued that government jawboning turned YouTube into a state actor. The…
My Testimony to the Colombian Constitutional Court Regarding Online Account Terminations and Content Removals
Today, I testified remotely before the Colombian Constitutional Court in the case of Esperanza Gómez Silva c. Meta Platforms, Inc. y Facebook Colombia S.A.S. Expediente T-8.764.298. In a procedure I don’t understand, the court organized a public hearing to discuss…
Twitter Wins Another Account Termination Case–Yuksel v. Twitter
This is another account termination/suspension case, which turns out like all of the others. Yuksel was a longtime Twitter user with 142k followers. He claims that Twitter suspended his account at the behest of the Turkish government. The court dismisses…
Fourth Circuit Takes a Wrecking Ball to Zeran and Section 230–Henderson v. Public Data
Ugh, this Fourth Circuit opinion is terrible. I instantly knew it was written by a Trump appointee from the Federalist Society because it had the characteristic self-assured yet sloppy writing style. And what’s the deal with Justice Thomas fandom among…
Does the CFAA Help Airlines Control Their Distribution Channels?–RyanAir v. Booking (Guest Blog Post)
by Kieran McCarthy When the Supreme Court decided Van Buren v. United States last summer, many Computer Fraud and Abuse Act experts felt that the decision avoided the worst interpretations of the CFAA, while consciously leaving most of its practical…
Section 230 Protects TikTok for “Blackout Challenge” Death, Despite the Algorithms–Anderson v. TikTok
A tragic story: a 10-year old girl saw the Blackout Challenge on TikTok, tried it herself, and died. The mom sued TikTok for design defect and failure to warn claims under strict products liability and negligence theories. The mom claimed…
Defendants Get Important FOSTA Win in 9th Circuit–Doe v. Reddit
This is the first federal appellate ruling applying FOSTA. (The DC Circuit evaluated a facial constitutional challenge to FOSTA in Woodhull). It’s an important defense win. If this ruling stands and persuades other appellate courts, it has significant implications for…
My New Article Drops a Truth Bomb on Zauderer and Censorial Efforts to Mandate Editorial Transparency
The battle over online free speech has drifted away from direct Section 230 reform and towards a variety of other regulatory ideas that would instead undermine Section 230’s core principles. One such ancillary battleground involves the regulatory push for “editorial…
Memes as Judicial Opinions–Courthouse News Service v. Forman
This opinion came out in June, but I just learned about it. In this opinion, a federal judge incorporated a meme into the opinion’s narrative to emphasize a rhetorical point (pun intended): [Later, the court adds: “one final point, this…