1-800 Contacts Loses YET ANOTHER Trademark Lawsuit Over Competitive Keyword Ads–1-800 Contacts v. Warby Parker
1-800 Contacts first appeared on this blog on February 9, 2005, my second day of blogging. 17 years later, I’m still blogging their ignoble trademark lawsuits. 🤡 Some “highlights” of 1-800 Contacts’ trademark jurisprudence over the years: 1-800 Contacts v….
Another Court Says Section 230 Applies to Retweeting–Holmok v. Burke
Holmok teaches at Lakewood High School. Virag tweeted: “When I was in his engineering class, I had been a part of a few reports filed against him. Some being racial and some being sexist. Nothing was ever done.” Burke retweeted…
Will California Eliminate Anonymous Web Browsing? (Comments on CA AB 2273, The Age-Appropriate Design Code Act)
I’m continuing my coverage of dangerous Internet bills in the California legislature. This job is especially challenging during an election year, when legislators rally behind the “protect the kids” mantra to pursue bills that are likely to hurt, or at…
Will California Clone-and-Revise Some Terrible Ideas from Florida/Texas’ Social Media Censorship Laws? (Analysis of CA AB587)
[Note: this is the first of what may become a 3 or 4 part series about anti-Internet bills moving through the California legislature.] This post analyzes California AB 587, self-described as “Content Moderation Requirements for Internet Terms of Service.” I…
Quick Links from the Past Year, Part 5 (Free Speech)
Russia * NYT: Russia Intensifies Censorship Campaign, Pressuring Tech Giants. The US government should more aggressively condemn “landing laws” as a violation of free speech? * Wired: Russia Blocks Facebook and Twitter in a Propaganda Standoff * Bloomberg: Russia Steps…
Quick Links from the Past Year, Part 4 (The Algorithms; Facebook)
[Shoutout to all of the dads out there! 🎉] The Algorithms * What would happen if FB turned off its newsfeed algorithm? In February 2018, a Facebook researcher all but shut off the News Feed ranking algorithm for .05% of…
Content Moderators’ Lawsuit Over Traumatic Work Fails Again–Aguilo v. Cognizant
This case involves Cognizant, a business process outsourcer (BPO) that performed content moderation work for Facebook. (Cognizant has since exited the field). In 2021, a federal court dismissed a putative class action lawsuit against Cognizant for trauma experienced by the…
Anti-Cyberstalking Statute Must Be Read Narrowly to Keep It Constitutional–U.S. v. Yung
I’m blogging this in part because of the shocking facts. Ho Ka Terence Yung really wanted to attend Georgetown Law. He did an alumni interview that went poorly and was rejected soon after. (Yung ended up attending UT Austin). Blaming…
Quantifying the Media’s Section 230 Misreporting in 2020
2020 was filled with terrible memories, including the COVID pandemic/shutdown and Trump’s coup attempt, so it’s easy to forget how close we came to losing Section 230. In May 2020, Trump issued his performative executive order purporting to repeal Section…
Facebook Moderator Defeats Defamation Lawsuit Over Termination Explanation–Margolies v. Rudolph
This is a case in the #MeToo genre. Rudolph runs a “private” Facebook group called The Green Lounge with about 14,000 members. Margolies was a member and made in-group connections with substantial commercial value to him. On June 3, 2020,…