Five Decisions Illustrate How Section 230 Is Fading Fast
Section 230 cases are coming faster than I can blog them. This long blog post rounds up five defense losses, riddled with bad judicial errors. Given the tenor of these opinions, how are any plaintiffs NOT getting around Section 230…
Facebook Defeats Lawsuit Over Allegedly Pornographic Ads–Reaud v. Facebook
Reaud claimed he received 93 “unwanted gross and offensive pornographic ads” on Facebook. (I don’t mean to victim-blame, but if his claim is true, I do wonder how Facebook’s ad algorithm was responding to his onsite activities). He further claims…
Comment on France’s Prosecution of Telegram Founder Pavel Durov
I don’t fully understand exactly what’s happening with Telegram and Pavel Durov in France. However, I have observed how many people don’t know the history of governments prosecuting Internet executives for the content or actions of third parties using their…
Bonkers Opinion Repeals Section 230 In the Third Circuit–Anderson v. TikTok
This decision is bonkers. The majority implies that any effort to curate third-party content automatically converts the third-party content into first-party content so that it no longer qualifies for Section 230 immunity. Because every UGC service necessarily curates every content…
AWS Can’t Shake BIPA Lawsuit for Providing Services to NBA 2K–Mayhall v. Amazon
[This opinion from May just showed up in my alerts. I believe that’s because the court and parties are battling over redactions. There have been other decisions involving BIPA, NBA 2K, and sometimes AWS that I haven’t comprehensively blogged. I…
When It Comes to Section 230, the Ninth Circuit is a Chaos Agent–Estate of Bride v. YOLO
The Ninth Circuit is interpreting Section 230 again. Time to grab your tissue box. * * * The Jenga-ing of Section 230 continues in the Ninth Circuit. This time, the court blows up the Barnes precedent, which created a promissory…
Glassdoor Denied Section 230 Immunity for Reviews from Non-Employees–Nicholas Air v. Glassdoor
This is a confusing case with the troubling outcome that Glassdoor could be liable for third-party reviews despite Section 230. The case is confusing in part because it involves two companies that seem like they are alter egos of each…
Section 230 Helps Substack Defeat a Defamation Claim–Smith v. Substack
This case involves the CancelWatch “blog” on Substack, which says: “We report the activists trying to ruin people’s lives and careers.” In July 2023, it made a post entitled “Oliver D. Smith” that details Smith’s online activities and explains why…
Section 230 Doesn’t Preempt Utah’s Minor Protection in Social Media Act–NetChoice v. Reyes
Utah passed a terrible law claiming to be “for the kids,” which are increasingly prevalent at the state level. The court summarizes some of the law’s obligations: the Act requires covered websites to “implement an age assurance system,” “limit the…
Court Blows Up Gmail’s Section 230 Protection, But Allegations of Biased Spam Filtering Still Fail–Republican National Committee v. Google
Prior blog post. If I say so myself, it was a really good post–you should read it first and then read this post. In my prior post, I wrote: “I hope you enjoy these 2,800 words on legal topics you…