California Appeals Court Confirms That School Districts Can’t Sue Over Social Media Addiction
[I have so many topically related cases in my blogging queue, but I’ve accelerated coverage of this one because of its potential significance.] An entire financial and regulatory ecosystem has developed around the narrative that social media services illegally addict…
Ninth Circuit Easily Rejects (Most of) a “Predator Access” Lawsuit on Section 230 Grounds–Doe (KB) v. Facebook
This is a FOSTA-and-more claim against Instagram. As I previously summarized, the plaintiff claimed (1) Instagram is a “breeding ground” for sex trafficking, and (2) Instagram’s algorithms matched the criminal with the victim. The plaintiff’s lawyers tried the full range…
Section 230 Blocks Lawsuits That “Meddle” With Online Publishers’ Editorial Decisions–Shared v. Meta
The Ninth Circuit’s Section 230 jurisprudence has devolved into a drama-filled implosion, so it’s shocking (in a refreshing way) when the Ninth Circuit nowadays issues a normal, straight-down-the-middle Section 230 opinion without any caveats, tricks, or angst. I have a…
City Government Can Use Facebook’s Anti-Bot Tool–Jalisi v. Poway
The City of Poway has a public Facebook page. Jalisi has been a critic of the city government, and he made critical posts on the city’s Facebook page. He claims that his posts were hidden or shadowbanned there. The City…
Alex Berenson’s Deplatforming Lawsuit Fails in the Second Circuit–Berenson v. Gottlieb
Alex Berenson is a one-time N.Y. Times reporter whose life appears to have taken an unfortunate turn in the wake of MAGA and COVID. According to his Wikipedia entry: During the coronavirus pandemic, Berenson appeared frequently in American right-wing media,…
Should Police Wipe a Criminal’s Cellphone Before Returning It?–U.S. v. Stathas
“Stathas pleaded guilty in 2023 to enticing a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity” (18 U.S.C. § 2422(b)). He was sentenced to 180 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release. As part of the arrest and investigation,…
Some New Data on Age Authentication Balk Rates
The issue is: if a website imposes a government-compelled age authentication wall, what percentage of users will stop at the authentication wall, either because the users turn around or fail to navigate the process? I call that percentage the “balk”…
Snap Wants to be a State Actor??–Kansas v. Snap
For decades, private Internet services have uniformly tried to avoid being legally characterized as government actors. If they become state actors, they must comply with Constitutional restrictions–meaning the Constitutionally required freedoms of speech and press would extend to their user-authors…
Op-Ed: Meta’s $5 Billion Deal with the State AGs to Take Down its Rivals
[This op-ed was first published by the San Jose Mercury News on Sept. 18, 2026.] Meta’s settlement with the state attorneys general has been touted as industry-redefining. Indeed, Meta desperately hopes it will be. Although Meta was the only industry…
Another Abusive “Yelp Law” Lawsuit Fails–Scott v. Ulta
If you aren’t familiar with the mass-lawsuit campaign to weaponize California’s “Yelp Law,” Civil Code 1670.8, maybe start here to get up to speed. In short, California banned contract provisions that purport to restrict consumers from reviewing the business. Plaintiffs…