Politician Can Block Constituents at Twitter–If It’s a “Campaign” Account–Campbell v. Reisch
This is another case challenging an elected official’s blocking of a constituent’s Twitter account on First Amendment grounds. It’s a 2-1 Eighth Circuit ruling that appears to distance itself from the approach of the Second and Fourth Circuits. As Eric…
FOSTA Survives Constitutional Challenge–US v. Martono
This case involves the DOJ’s prosecution of CityXGuide.com, which allegedly tried to pick up the online commercial sex advertising business after Backpage’s shutdown. The DOJ’s initial press release and Techdirt’s coverage of it. A grand jury indicted the site’s principal,…
CASE-ing the Joint: The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s note: Prof. Ochoa previously posted a 900 word summary of the CASE Act. This post does a 5,500 word deep dive into the law for those who want the details.] On December 27, 2020,…
Planning to Sue Twitter Over an Account Suspension? YOU WILL LOSE–Murphy v. Twitter
Murphy engaged in deadnaming and misgendering in her tweets. Twitter repeatedly disciplined Murphy’s account until it finally permanently suspended the account. Murphy sued Twitter. The lower court ruled for Twitter on Section 230 grounds. The appeals court affirmed. This court…
Mirroring Qualifies for Section 230–Monsarrat v. Newman
This case involves a LiveJournal community (the Davis Square community for Somerville, MA). In 2017, LiveJournal changed its policies. In response, Newman, the community moderator, copied all of the community’s posts and uploaded them to Dreamwidth–an action we used to…
Lawyer Can’t Sue Google for Bad Client Review–Lewis v. Google
Kerry Lewis is a lawyer. A putative client, “Lolo Mosby,” posted a zero-star rating and a negative review of him. I can’t find the review online, and the link in the court opinion no longer works. However, the complaint contains…
Court Rejects Parler’s Demand That Amazon Host Its Services
Parler, a self-described “conservative microblogging alternative and [competitor] to Twitter,” sued Amazon Web Services for suspending its service. Parler claimed (1) antitrust violations, (2) breach of contract, and (3) tortious interference. Parler sought a temporary restraining order (which the court…
Comments on the “Protecting Constitutional Rights from Online Platform Censorship Act”
A tsunami of new Section 230 reform bills is coming soon. The early previews suggest those bills will be just as terrible as the bills from the 116th Congress. This bill comes from Rep. DesJarlais (R-TN), who voted against certifying…
Emoji Law Year-in-Review for 2020
Some emoji law highlights from 2020: * My caselaw tally shows 132 cases referencing emojis or emoticons in 2020, a 25% increase from 2019. This year, I noticed that emojis are showing up in more murder cases–10 in 2020, compared…
A Short Summary of the CASE Act (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s intro: The following is an excerpt from Joyce, Ochoa and Carroll, Copyright Law (2021 Supplement). In a future post, Prof. Ochoa will do a deep dive on the CASE Act for the geeks.] [C]…