Ten Worst Section 230 Rulings of 2016 (Plus the Five Best)
2016 was a tough year in many respects (check out the #Fuck2016 hashtag), including a swarm of adverse Section 230 rulings. Even in paradigms where the immunity still functions reasonably well, such as user comments on message boards or online…
2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 6 (Section 230)
* Smith v. Alphabet Inc., 2016 WL 3660725 (S.D. Ala. May 23, 2016): “plaintiff’s citation to (and discussion of) § 230 of the CDA in no manner advances his arguments against the corporate defendants inasmuch as it is clear that…
Tweeting Death Threats Isn’t Juvenile Delinquency–In re R.D.
Teens and Twitter–what could go wrong? A tweetstorm broke out among Colorado high schoolers related to the Arapahoe High School shooting. R.D. joined the fray, tweeting A.C. (at his Twitter alias @iTweetYouShutUp) messages including: • “[i]f I see your bitch…
Police Department’s Social Media Policy Is Unconstitutional–Liverman v. Petersburg
The City of Petersburg’s police department adopted a social media policy for police officers that included the following restrictions: Negative comments on the internal operations of the Bureau, or specific conduct of supervisors or peers that impacts the public’s perception…
Backpage Executives Defeat Pimping Charges Per Section 230–People v. Ferrer
When Kamala Harris’ office filed pimping charges against three Backpage executives, I wondered: why now? why pimping? After all, in 2013, California AG Kamala Harris signed a letter to Congress saying that Section 230 “prevents State and local law enforcement…
Server Location, Jurisdiction, and Server Location Requirements (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Marketa Trimble At the recent “Law, Borders, and Speech” conference at Stanford, several participants debated the relevance of server location in determining jurisdiction. Some Silicon Valley attorneys at the conference argued that the location of a server should…
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…
Adding Derogatory Caption to Photo Meme Can Be False Light–S.E. v. Chmerkovskiy
S.E. has Down Syndrome. The complaint alleges that in 2008, S.E. attended a baseball game (at the age of 8) in Nashville and was photographed standing outside the stadium near a concession stand. The photographer posted the photo to his…
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…