Facebook Defeats User’s TOS Breach Claim–Lloyd v. Facebook

Lloyd sued Facebok for a variety of claims (I initially described the suit as “a standard kitchen-sink pro se lawsuit against Facebook”). The district court dismissed the complaint in 2022. This summer, the Ninth Circuit largely affirmed, but it revived the contract breach claim for procedural reasons. I wrote then: “This resurrects Lloyd’s breach of contract claim, but only temporarily. After more time and money at the district court, Facebook should have no problem defeating it.”

Unsurprisingly, on remand, the district court dismisses the contract breach claim. “The fundamental deficiency in the claim…is a failure to point to any specific contract provision (or promise) that Facebook breached….For the same reason, § 230(c)(1) is also a bar to Ms. Lloyd’s breach-of-contract claim.”

The court adds that Facebook’s “policies” are not inherently contractual promises. To me, this previews the future of contract breach claims designed to take advantage of the Section 230 workaround offered by Calise and YOLO. Plaintiffs will mine various disclosures looking for something, but that “something” will not be a binding contractual promise that can support a claim.

With respect to Section 230:

Ms. Lloyd’s claim that § 230(c)(1) does not provide protection to a publisher when a third party makes a serious threat such as murder or rape…is not well supported. Neither the statutory language nor the case law suggests that applicability of § 230(c)(1) turns on the type of third-party speech involved.

Case Citation: Lloyd v. Facebook, Inc., 2024 WL 5121035 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 16, 2024). The initial complaint (filed 3 years ago).