Quora Gets Easy Section 230 Win In Tenth Circuit–Silver v. Quora
Since its Accusearch ruling in 2009, the Tenth Circuit has been a dicey place for Section 230 defendants. Fortunately, this case goes smoothly. David Silver is an investment banker in Santa Fe. On Quora, someone asked: “Has anyone worked with…
Plaintiffs’ Law Firm Can Reference Targeted Business’ Name In Ad Copy–McHugh Fuller v. Pruitt
PruittHealth operates nursing homes in the Southeast. The McHugh Fuller law firm regularly sues nursing homes (their tagline: “Nursing Home Law…It’s What We Do”). To drum up business, in March 2015, it ran the following ad in the Moultrie, Georgia…
Twitter Defeats ISIS “Material Support” Lawsuit Again–Fields v. Twitter
As you may recall, this lawsuit relates to two American contractors in Jordan killed in a terrorist attack claimed by ISIS. The plaintiffs sued Twitter for providing material support to ISIS. In August, the judge dismissed the lawsuit on Section…
Court Rejects Effort to De-Index Search Results–Manchanda v. Google
Rahul Manchanda, an attorney, claims he was defamed in Ripoff Reports and elsewhere. In 2013, he obtained a restraining order against some of the authors in New York state court. Manchanda then sought to expand that order to restrain Ripoff…
Conflict of Laws Has Caught Up with Silicon Valley. Now Silicon Valley Needs to Catch Up on Conflict of Laws (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Marketa Trimble On October 24 and 25, 2016, the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School hosted a conference entitled “Law, Borders, and Speech.” The excellent, thought-provoking conference featured panels of U.S. and international speakers, a…
Now the Seventh Circuit Is Shitting On Section 230–Huon v. Denton
Section 230’s trainwreck of a year adds another derailment. MAKE. IT. STOP. This case is a defamation-plus lawsuit over two stories, one published on Above the Law and the other by the Gawker property Jezebel. The Jezebel story described plaintiff…
Section 230 Ruling Against Airbnb Puts All Online Marketplaces At Risk–Airbnb v. San Francisco
San Francisco wants to curb Airbnb listings. It adopted a license-and-tax requirement for Airbnb vendors (who Airbnb confusingly calls “hosts”). Vendors widely ignored SF’s rules. To minimize its enforcement obligations, SF sought to deputize Airbnb as its enforcement agency. Thus,…
Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Amazon From Products Liability Claims–McDonald v. LG
This case involves an exploding cellphone battery. LG manufactured the battery and an Amazon marketplace vendor Safetymind sold it to the buyer. In addition to suing LG, the injured buyer sued Amazon for negligent failure to warn, negligence, and breach…
Constitutional Challenge to Section 230 Fails On Standing Grounds–AFDI v. Lynch
This lawsuit involves a facial attack on Section 230 on First Amendment grounds. The plaintiffs are unhappy that, protected by Section 230, social media companies have squelched some of their speech while allowing other speakers to promulgate content they don’t…
Backpage Can’t Challenge the SAVE Act–Backpage v. Lynch
I never had a chance to blog the 2015 SAVE Act, but I always meant to. It’s one of the rare times that Congress intentionally circumscribed Section 230. However, instead of amending Section 230 directly, Congress added a federal criminal…