Why I Think California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) Is Unconstitutional
I’ve repeatedly expressed my opposition to the California Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC), and now I’ve put my opposition into more formal terms for a judge. With the pro bono assistance of Jenner & Block, I filed an amicus brief in…
Debrief on the Taamneh v. Twitter Oral Arguments
My observations about the Supreme Court’s 2.5 hour long (and very tedious) oral arguments in the Taamneh v. Twitter case: The justices struggled to define the statute’s actus reus (did Twitter take a culpable action?) and mens rea (did Twitter…
Quick Debrief on the Gonzalez v. Google Oral Arguments
I’m going to crank this blog post out before I get swamped with press requests. My takeaways: I did not hear 5 votes in favor of the plaintiffs’ position. Indeed, the justices didn’t really engage with the plaintiffs’ core arguments…
Preparing for the Supreme Court’s Gonzalez v. Google Oral Arguments
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Gonzalez v. Google case. I am NOT looking forward to this at all. First, I expect the arguments will go poorly for free speech and the Internet’s status quo. It’ll…
Musk’s Changes at Twitter Moot Lawsuit Over Naomi Wolf’s Deplatforming–Trump v. Twitter
Wikipedia says: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, [Naomi] Wolf has frequently promoted COVID-19 misinformation, misinformation related to vaccination and 5G conspiracy theories.” Twitter banned her account as part of its COVID misinformation crackdown. Wolf then joined Trump’s “deplatforming” lawsuit against Twitter,…
New York’s Mandatory Editorial Transparency Law Preliminarily Enjoined–Volokh v. James
Last year, as part of the first wave of censorial mandatory editorial transparency laws, New York enacted N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law ยง 394-ccc. The “has two main requirements: (1) a mechanism for social media users to file complaints about instances…
A Preliminary Analysis of Trump’s Copyright Lawsuit Over Interview Recordings (Trump v. Simon & Schuster) (Guest Blog Post)
By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s note: Prof. Ochoa calls this a “preliminary” analysis, but that doesn’t mean it’s short!] Two weeks ago, former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against journalist Bob Woodward and his publisher, Simon & Schuster…
Snapchat Defeats Lawsuit Over User-to-User Harassment–Ziencik v. Snap
[I’m backlogged on several 230 cases. I’ll get to them eventually] This case involves two Snapchat users who repeatedly received threatening messages from other Snapchat users despite the victims’ efforts to block the perpetrators. A victim flagged messages for Snapchat,…
Can Government Agencies Ban Scraping?–NAACP v. Kohn (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy For years, open-Internet advocates have argued that scraping bans infringe on First Amendment rights. After all, access to information is a protected form of speech. But since most scraping cases involve two private litigants, and…
Domain Name Sniping Covered by Section 230–Scott Rigsby v. GoDaddy
It’s refreshing to see a “normal” Section 230 opinion from the Ninth Circuit. They have gotten rarer, and the Gonzalez opinion may make them extinct. Scott Rigsby is the first double-leg amputee to complete an Iron Man Triathlon. He registered…