Pres. Trump Violates the Constitution By Blocking @RealDonaldTrump Followers–Knight First Amendment v. Trump
In the Knight Foundation’s First Amendment lawsuit against President Trump for blocking Twitter users, the Second Circuit says that his blocking of users based on their viewpoints violates the First Amendment. This is a resounding loss for the President. (Our…
Section 230 Protects Snapchat from Liability for Cyberbullying–Grossman v. Rockaway Township
This case involves the heartbreaking suicide of 12 year old Mallory Grossman, driven by offline and online peer bullying that included mean Snapchat messages. (Note: the opinion refers to Mallory as “MG,” but poor redactions reveal her name in the…
Latest Linkwrap on FOSTA’s Aftermath
Some FOSTA-related links that have accumulated over the past few months: Lucy Kahn, “Against FOSTA/SESTA: One Canary’s Cry From Inside the Coal Mine“ Now that FOSTA/SESTA has been voted into law, I’ve literally seen my advertising platforms disappear before my…
Facebook Defeats Alabama Injunction for Lack of Jurisdiction–Facebook v. KGS
This case involves an allegedly “predatory” adoption. As usual with custody disputes, the facts are heartbreaking. The birth mom agreed to place her unborn baby into adoption, but then changed her mind. The adoption court eventually awarded custody to the…
Private Publishers Aren’t State Actors–Manhattan Community Access v. Halleck
[Eric’s note: this post has two parts. First, I recap the opinion and its implications. Then, Heather Whitney revisits as a guest blogger with a different perspective.] Part 1: Eric’s Comments This case involves local cable access, but it has…
Your Periodic Reminder That Facebook Isn’t a State Actor–Williby v. Zuckerberg
This is my fourth blog post on a social media “censorship”/deplatforming ruling in 11 days (see also Fyk v. Facebook, Murphy v. Twitter and Brittain v. Twitter). This litigation tsunami is taking place even though these cases have absolutely no legal merit….
The Plaintiff Is Probably Pissed About Section 230–Fyk v. Facebook
[I’ll blog an analysis of Sen. Hawley’s bill attacking Section 230 soon.] Jason Fyk created Facebook pages “dedicated to videos and pictures of people urinating….Plaintiff alleges that Facebook blocked content posted by Plaintiff and removed content in order to make…
Linkwrap on Sen. Hawley’s Bill Attacking Section 230
As you probably saw, Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a new bill, “Ending Support for Internet Censorship Act,” targeting Section 230. The associated press release. Like most Congressional bill names, the title is a complete misdirection. Of course private entities aren’t…
Twitter Gets Another Significant Section 230 Win in Lawsuit by Suspended User–Murphy v. Twitter
Murphy had about 25,000 Twitter followers. She repeatedly referred to a trangender female as male in her tweets. Twitter suspended her account for “misgendering.” After more negative interactions between them, Twitter permanently banned Murphy. Murphy claimed that Twitter changed its…
Once Again, Section 230 Protects Twitter’s Account Suspension Decisions–Brittain v. Twitter
This is another easy defense win in a pro se case, and yet another lawsuit indirectly involving Trump and his supporters. Twitter suspended four accounts run by Craig Brittain of IsAnybodyDown? “revenge” porn infamy. Brittain sued. My prior blog post…