Court Permanently Enjoins Ohio’s Segregate-and-Suppress/Parental Consent Law–NetChoice v. Yost
Ohio enacted a segregate-and-suppress law that requires regulated websites to obtain parental consent before minors can access certain site features. In early 2024, the court granted a preliminary injunction against the law going into effect. Borrowing heavily from its prior…
Courts’ Expectations for TOS Formation Keep Going Up—Lee v. Plex
This is a VPPA claim against Plex (a video streaming service) regarding the use of Meta Pixels. 🙄🙄 The defendant invoked the arbitration clause in its TOS. Extensively citing Chabolla, the court rejects the arbitration request. Here is Plex’s sign-up…
First Amendment Doesn’t Apply to Descriptions of Content Moderation Practices–Bride v. Snap
Last year, the Ninth Circuit said that plaintiffs could get around Section 230 in their lawsuit against the app maker YOLO because the app maker said it would ban users for inappropriate statements and would unmask harassers. This opinion raised…
Purchase First, TOS Presentation Second = TOS Fail–Seneca v. Homeaglow
This case involves the Homeaglow/Dazzle Cleaning services. The plaintiffs claim that purchasing the defendant’s initial loss leader offering caused the plaintiffs to subscribe to a hidden monthly recurring charge. Invoking the arbitration clause in the TOS, the defendant sought to…
California AG Abandons Key Parts of California’s Mandatory Editorial Transparency Law (AB 587)–X v. Bonta
As you may recall, the Ninth Circuit substantially gutted California’s mandatory editorial transparency law (AB 587). In the aftermath of that ruling, the California AG abandoned its defense of key portions of the law. The settlement says: subdivisions (a)(3), (a)(4)(A),…
California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) Is Completely Unconstitutional (Multiple Ways)–NetChoice v. Bonta
I don’t normally start my blog posts with a meme, but this one tells you everything you need to know: * * * This blog post concerns the California Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC), passed by the California legislature in 2022….
Section 230 Protects Facebook’s Decision to Cut Off Sketchy App’s API Access–Six4Three v. Facebook
Six4Three developed an app called “Pikinis” (a/k/a “Pikini”), which enabled its users to search Facebook for photos of women in bikinis. 🙄 The app drew upon Facebook’s Graph API. Facebook later shut down Six4Three’s API access for what seemed to…
Fourth Circuit Upholds TOS Formation Despite a Bad Call-to-Action, But Strikes Down Unilateral Amendment Clauses
Two noteworthy rulings this week from the Fourth Circuit regarding TOS formation issues. Dhruva v. CuriosityStream, Inc., No. 24-1080 (4th Cir. March 10, 2025) Curiosity Stream is a paywalled site for documentary videos. The plaintiffs brought a Meta pixels case…
Another Lawsuit Over Online Content Restrictions Fails–Qian v. YouTube
Qian uploaded content to YouTube, which YouTube restricted in various ways. Qian sued YouTube for breaching its TOS. The district court granted summary judgment to YouTube. The Second Circuit affirms. YouTube’s TOS contained a standard reservation of rights to do…
The Ninth Circuit Has a Lot to Say About Online Contract Formation (Much of It Confusing)–Chabolla v. ClassPass
I previously summarized this case: The plaintiffs claim they signed up for a ClassPass membership but got unexpectedly auto-renewed. (ClassPass appears to be an aggregator of third-party fitness classes). ClassPass sought to send the case to arbitration based on its…