Another Blocked Facebook User Loses in Court–Dipp-Paz v. Facebook
This ruling doesn’t break any new ground, so I’m blogging it mostly for completeness. The pro se plaintiff sued Facebook for violating his free speech rights by blocking his account. He alleged: It’s not the first time that I get…
1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 5 (Censorship, Defamation)
Censorship * Fortune: The Splinternet Is Growing * NY Times: India Proposes Chinese-Style Internet Censorship * South China Morning Post: No smoking, no tattoos, no bikinis: inside China’s war to ‘clean up’ the internet * NY Times: In China, an…
Comments on the Hikind v. Ocasio-Cortez Lawsuit Over AOC’s Twitter Blocks
The same day as the Second Circuit’s Knight First Amendment v. Trump ruling, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was sued for blocking accounts on Twitter. See Hikind v. Ocasio-Cortez, 1:19-cv-03956 (E.D.N.Y. complaint filed July 9, 2019). The same-day turnaround on the complaint suggests…
A Recap of the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Amending the California Consumer Privacy Act (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Tanya Forsheit, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC [Eric’s note: it takes super-human dedication to watch a 12+ hour hearing on CCPA amendments. Though I’m willing to do a lot for blog readers, I didn’t have that level…
1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 4 (Section 230, Content Moderation)
Section 230 * Historical archive of Section 230 case materials (with Jeff Kosseff) * Some Congressmembers are developing a letter asking the State Department to delete the Section 230-like immunity from the USMCA. Background. * Cunningham v. Montes, 2019 WL…
Large and Diverse Coalition Issues a Statement of Principles to Help Evaluate UGC Liability Reform Proposals
Yesterday, I posted a 2,300 word takedown of Sen. Hawley’s anti-Section 230 bill. That post took me at least 6 hours of drafting time, and 3 weeks of chronological time, to prepare. I separately wrote a deconstruction of the UK…
![Comments on Sen. Hawley's "[Ending] Support for Internet Censorship Act"](https://blog.ericgoldman.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/censorship-meme-150x150.jpg)
Comments on Sen. Hawley’s “[Ending] Support for Internet Censorship Act”
Sen. Josh Hawley’s “[Ending] Support for Internet Censorship Act” (S. 1914) would require large(ish) Internet companies to prove to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that they publish user content in a politically neutral way–or categorically lose Section 230 immunity. In…
Amazon May Be Liable for Marketplace Items–Oberdorf v. Amazon
In what could be a seismic ruling, the Third Circuit held that Amazon is a legally responsible seller of defective marketplace items, exposing it to potentially enormous liability. This represents the worst loss yet for Amazon over marketplace sales. However,…
1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 3 (Trademarks)
* Williams-Sonoma v. Amazon, Case No.18-cv-07548-EDL (N.D. Cal. May 2, 2019): The first theory of infringement – that Amazon set up an unauthorized Williams-Sonoma website – is not plausible. The screenshots included in the complaint and/or attached as exhibits show…
1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 2 (Keyword Advertising)
* Grasshopper House LLC v. Clean & Sober Media LLC, 2019 WL 2762936 (C.D. Cal. July 1, 2019). Prof. Tushnet recaps the case. The passages that stood out to me: Lastly, Passages argues for a third mechanism to estimate Cliffside’s…