2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 11 (Social Media, Harassment, E-Discovery & More)
Social Media * US v. Elonis, 2016 WL 6310803 (3d Cir. Oct. 28, 2016). Anthony Elonis’ conviction for criminal threats was once again upheld: Considering the graphic nature of the three messages Elonis posted in October, it is not at…
2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 10 (Marketing, Uber, Airbnb, Taxes & More)
Marketing/Advertising * Danny Sullivan: Facebook’s racial targeting isn’t new, bad or always illegal despite renewed attention * In re Sling Media Slingbox Advertising Litigation (SDNY Aug. 12, 2016). Sling isn’t liable to consumers for adding its own ads to recorded…
Student Disciplined for Posting Threatening Mashup Video to Instagram–AN v. Upper Perkiomen School District
A.N. is a 15 year student at Upper Perkiomen High School (a distant suburb of Philadelphia). He mashed up part of the viral video “Evan,” a video about how we can easily overlook homicidal students, with the song “Pumped Up…
Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2016
Donald Trump’s election as president pretty much dominated our thoughts about 2016 (though Brexit was pretty significant too). So I decided to break up my annual top 10 list into two separate top 5 lists, one election-related, one not. Top…
2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 8 (Fake News, Terrorist Content, Censorship & More)
Fake News/The Presidential Election * NY Times: Facebook Is Said to Question Its Influence in Election * Slate: The Real Problem Behind the Fake News * Vox: Facebook exec: “We resisted having standards” on fake news. “That was wrong.” *…
2H 2016 Quick Links, Part 7 (Consumer Reviews & Defamation)
Consumer Reviews * Eugene Volokh and Paul Levy: Dozens of suspicious court cases, with missing defendants, aim at getting web pages taken down or deindexed. See also Ross Todd, Attorneys Accused of Filing Bogus Suits in Alleged Scheme to Stamp…
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…