Section 230 Preempts Game User’s Lawsuit Over Game Moderators’ Behavior–Quinteros v. Forge of Empires
This lawsuit involves the freemium videogame “Forge of Empires.” The plaintiff, Penny Quinteros (a/k/a TwoCents), claims she became addicted to the game. She played the game virtually every day from 2016-19–over 10,000 hours worth–and spent over $9,000 on in-game transactions….
Texas and Its Amici Try to Justify Censorship in Their NetChoice v. Paxton Fifth Circuit Briefs
As you recall, in December, a federal district court enjoined most of HB 20, Texas’ so-called “social media censorship” law. As expected, Texas appealed the ruling to the Fifth Circuit. This blog post recaps the Texas brief and the 11…
When Are Sexually-Themed Memes “Harmful to Minors”?–State v. Chapman
Chapman was a high school teacher. He texted a student multiple sexually-themed memes and remarks. The court details 11 items; this one is representative: “A picture of a cartoon character with white liquid on its stomach and the caption ‘When…
Vimeo Wins Section 230(c)(2)(A) Ruling on Motion to Dismiss–Daystar v. Vimeo
This case involves Daystar TV Network, “an evangelical Christian-based television network.” It contracted with Vimeo to host and distribute up to 2,000 hours of videos/year. Daystar uploaded over 3,000 videos to Vimeo pursuant to this contract. Vimeo’s AUP banned content…
Section 230 Survives Yet Another Constitutional Challenge–Huber v. Biden
Twitter suspended Huber pursuant to its COVID misinformation policy. Huber claimed that Twitter took that action in league with the Biden administration. If this setup sounds familiar, that’s because at least a dozen cases riff on this theme. This case…
Instagram Influencer Denied Section 230 For Reposting Reader Submissions–Zuckerbrot v. Gellis
This case involves the high-fiber diet system “F-Factor,” developed by dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot. Emily Gellis is an Instagram influencer currently with 182k followers, but no training as a dietitian or journalist. Gellis believed that F-Factor harmed consumers, a message she…
Snapchat May Have a Duty Not to Design Dangerous Software–Maynard v. Snap
The Georgia Supreme Court has issued a troubled, and troubling, opinion in Maynard v. Snap. The opinion will delight law professors who love geeking out about the elements of common law negligence claims. It will also inspire plaintiffs to bring…
Court Mistakenly Thinks Copyright Owners Have a Duty to Police Infringement–Sunny Factory v. Chen
Fuxi, the putative copyright owner, has a registration for an image of printed sage leaves (the left image): The alleged infringer, the Sunny Factory, sells the candles on the right on Amazon. Fuxi’s lawyer, Haoyi Chen of Arch & Lake,…
First Circuit Says Mirroring Qualifies for Section 230–Monsarrat v. Newman
I previously blogged this case last year. I summarized the facts: This case involves a LiveJournal community (the Davis Square community for Somerville, MA). In 2017, LiveJournal changed its policies. In response, Newman, the community moderator, copied all of the…
Justice Thomas Really, REALLY Wants Section 230 Repealed (Even If He Has to Do It Himself)
The Supreme Court denied certiorari in Doe v. Facebook, a FOSTA case. The Texas Supreme Court held that FOSTA excluded some claims from Section 230 (disregarding the statutory language Congress adopted), while other claims remain preempted by Section 230. The…