Justice Thomas Hates on Section 230. Again.–Doe v. Snap
I previously described this case: A high school teacher allegedly used Snapchat to groom a sophomore student for a sexual relationship. (Atypically, the teacher was female and the victim was male, but the genders are irrelevant to this incident). The…
Plaintiffs Lack Standing to Sue Over Government Jawboning When Their Evidence is Based on Vibes–Murthy v. Missouri
In a well-functioning society, governments and the private sector will engage in an ongoing dialogue about public welfare issues. Much of this conversation is healthy and productive, as both the government and the private sector have different expertise and different…
‘Scruff’ App Qualifies for Section 230 Immunity–J.R. v. Mancino
“Scruff is a web application that provides a matchmaking platform for men.” I believe competes (at least in part) with Grindr. The plaintiff (the victim’s parent, proceeding pro se) alleges that Scruff app users exchanged CSAM and discussed plans to…
Court Revives Lawsuit Against Facebook Over Scammy Crypto Ads–Forrest v. Meta
Andrew Forrest is an Australian billionaire. “Beginning in 2019, Dr. Forrest learned that ads using his name and likeness to endorse cryptocurrency and other fraudulent investment products were appearing on Facebook.” Forrest contacted Facebook multiple times over the years asking…
Court Dismisses School Districts’ Lawsuits Over Social Media “Addiction”–In re Social Media Cases
[Warning: this is a 5,600 word blog post]. There are two critically important cases over “social media addiction” pending in California state court and as an MDL in the federal Northern District of California. It is an all-out brawl in…
Instagram Defeats Lawsuit Claiming It Was a “Breeding Ground” for Sex Traffickers–Doe v. Backpage
This opinion came out in March but just showed up in my alerts. Doe claims she was sex-trafficked on Instagram. Section 230 preempts her lawsuit against Facebook: “Ninth Circuit precedent interpreting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C….
Ninth Circuit Does More Damage to Section 230–Calise v. Meta
This is a lawsuit over scammy ads from Chinese advertisers. The plaintiffs claim Facebook “affirmatively invites” scammy ads by “actively soliciting, encouraging, and assisting scammers it knows, or should know, are using its platform to defraud Facebook users with deceptive…
YouTube Isn’t Liable for User Uploads of Animal Abuse Videos–Lady Freethinker v. YouTube
YouTube’s TOS restricts the uploading of content depicting animal abuse, defined as “content that shows the malicious infliction of serious physical or psychological harm that causes an animal to suffer.” The TOS provides additional details about what YouTube considers impermissible…
Section 230 Applies to YouTube and Google Search Results–Montano v. Washington Department of Health
The court summarizes some of the plaintiff’s concerns: all [] [D]efendants acted with malice against [] [P]laintiff who is a member of a protected class “LGBTQ” as a self-identified gay individual, causing [] [P]laintiff to suffer monetary damages including loss…
Section 230 Applies to Publication of Court Documents–Medina v. Microsoft
In 2014, Medina sued Microsoft. Microsoft’s filings made some unredacted disclosures about Medina that were repeated in an unredacted court opinion, and those documents appeared on several websites that publish court documents. In 2020, Medina got the disclosures from the…