Justice Thomas Writes a Misguided Anti-Section 230 Statement “Without the Benefit of Briefing”–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
Last year, the Ninth Circuit ruled that a plaintiff could plead around Section 230(c)(2)(B), the safe harbor for providing filtering instructions, by claiming that the filtering was motivated by anticompetitive animus. Last week, the Supreme Court denied certiorari. This isn’t…
Another Tough Ruling for Print-on-Demand Vendors–Sid Avery v. Pixels
Sid Avery photographed celebrities in the 1950s-1970s. At issue are six of his photos, all governed by the 1909 Copyright Act. Pixels[.]com is a print-on-demand vendor. Like Redbubble, it functions primarily as a marketing front-end; it outsources all manufacturing to…
Facebook Doesn’t Have a Duty to Prevent a Murder–Godwin v. Facebook
In 2017, Steve Stephens murdered Robert Godwin Sr. On the day of the murder, Stephens made the following post to Facebook: FB my life for the pass year has really been fuck up!!! lost everything ever had due to gambling…
Twitter Wins Another Account Suspension Case–Wilson v. Twitter
I previously blogged the plaintiff’s virtually identical lawsuit in June. The plaintiff claimed Twitter suspended his account because he’s a heterosexual Christian. The court rejected all of his claims, including his allegations that Twitter was a state actor and Twitter…
512(f) Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss–Brandyn Love v. Nuclear Blast America
[Remember that our country is facing multiple existential threats. PLEASE VOTE.] This case involves two “heavy metal” bands, “We Are the End” and “Rings of Saturn” (the Spotify bio describes Rings of Saturn as “a progressive, technical deathcore outfit”). I…
Section 230 Preempts Another Facebook Account Termination Case–Zimmerman v. Facebook
Another pro se lawsuit over Facebook account terminations fails. Some background on the case. This is an easy Section 230 case: “A social media site’s decision to delete or block access to a user’s individual profile falls squarely within this…
Sen. Graham Cares More About Trolls Than Section 230 (Comments on Online Content Policy Modernization Act)
I’m blogging yet another terrible Section 230 reform proposal: S. 4534, the ‘‘Online Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Act’’ (introduced by Sens. Wicker, Graham, and Blackburn), which has been rolled into S. 4632, the “Online Content Policy Modernization Act.” Despite the…
Twitter Isn’t Liable for Defamatory Impersonation Account–Brikman v. Twitter
This is a pro se lawsuit, which explains why the plaintiffs tried obviously doomed arguments that (I hope) no attorney would make in 2020. The plaintiffs are affiliated with a Brooklyn synagogue, Kneses Israel of Seagate. Someone created a Twitter…
Facial Recognition Database Vendor May Not Qualify for Section 230–Vermont v. Clearview
As you recall, Clearview AI is a facial recognition database vendor. Some law enforcement departments have adopted its service, but we aren’t sure how many. We also aren’t sure about its facial recognition accuracy (or, for that matter, how much…
An Interview on Why Section 230 Is On the “Endangered Watch List”
[I did a short interview with a book author:] When we hear this debate of whether social media sites are publishers or platforms, why is it relevant to everyday consumers of content from sites like Facebook and YouTube? It isn’t,…