Section 230 Doesn’t Support Habeus Petition by ‘Revenge’ Pornographer–Bollaert v. Gore
As you may recall, Kevin Bollaert ran UGotPosted, which published third-party submitted nonconsensual pornography, and ChangeMyReputation.com, which offered depicted individuals a “pay-to-remove” option. Bollaert appeared multiple times in my inventory of nonconsensual pornography enforcement actions. Bollaert’s conduct was disgusting, and…
Angie’s List Defeats Lawsuit Over Alleged “Pay-to-Play” Rankings–Strauss v. Angie’s List
Strauss spent over $200,000 on Angie’s List advertising over about a decade. After he stopped advertising, he claimed Angie’s List treated him poorly, including deindexing him from its search, then degrading his positioning in search results, and other malfeasance. All…
Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against Airbnb Has the Potential to Change Online Marketplaces–Harrington v. Airbnb
Airbnb has admitted that some of its vendors have engaged in racial discrimination. It really had no choice in this admission, after both empirical and anecdotal evidence demonstrated it. Plaintiffs sued Airbnb for violating Oregon’s discrimination law. The magistrate judge…
Seventh Different Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Material Support to Terrorists” Fails–Taamneh v. Twitter
By my count, this is the seventh different lawsuit concluding that social media providers are not liable for materially supporting terrorists (Cain, Crosby, Fields, Force/Cohen, Gonzalez, Pennie, Taamneh). [If I’m missing any, please let me know.] This is an impressive…
Section 230 Protects Twitter’s Decision to Suspend User’s Account–Mezey v. Twitter
This decision is from July but just showed up in Westlaw. Mezey sued Twitter for suspending his account. The opinion doesn’t provide any background about the account or why Twitter suspended it. The court easily dismissed the lawsuit on Section…
Swedish Court Misunderstands Memes (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Stacey Lantagne Memes are everywhere. Part of the essential communicative fabric of social media, it’s hard to imagine Twitter or Instagram or even texting without them. They get used to react to matters of national debate, sports…
An Analysis of Title II of Public Law 115-264: The Classics Protection and Access Act (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Tyler Ochoa On October 11, 2018, President Trump signed into law H.R. 1551, the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, which became Public Law 115-364, 132 Stat. 3676. The Act contains three titles pertaining to copyright law. Title…
Call for Papers/Participation: 9th Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress, SCU, March 2, 2019
We invite your participation in the Ninth Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress conference at Santa Clara University School of Law, March 2, 2019. The conference series is co-sponsored by the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law and the Innovation Center for Law and Technology at the New…
Section 230 Applies to Defend Trade Secret Act Claims–Craft Beer Stellar v. Glassdoor
Glassdoor is a consumer review site for employees reviewing employers. The plaintiff in this case is a franchisor. Purported employees of a franchisee posted six negative reviews about the franchisee on Glassdoor. The reviews mentioned the francishor’s CEO, Suzanne Schalow,…
FOSTA Doesn’t Help Pro Se Litigant’s Defamation Claim Against Facebook
This is a typical pro se defamation lawsuit against Facebook. The plaintiff claims that other Facebook users defamed him in a Facebook group. The court treats this as an easy Section 230 case. The court applies the standard three-part test…