University of Wisconsin-Madison Censored Animal-Rights Activist on Instagram and Facebook–Krasno v. UWM
Krasno is a critic of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s treatment of animals. She commented on UWM’s Instagram and Facebook posts. UWM’s social media managers hid her comments manually; some of her comments were blocked by UWM’s keyword filters. Prior blog post….
The Ninth Circuit Finds Two New Ways to Undermine Section 230–Doe v. Twitter
The Ninth Circuit swiss-cheesed Section 230 with two new exceptions. 📉 * * * This is a FOSTA case. The plaintiffs allege that “traffickers” coerced the victims to produce CSAM, then posted the materials to Twitter. The plaintiffs further allege…
Social Media Services Aren’t Liable for Buffalo Mass-Shooting–Patterson v. Meta
The New York state intermediate appeals court has issued a significant ruling dismissing four lawsuits that sought to hold many social media services (Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Google, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, Twitch, Amazon and 4Chan) liable for the 2022 Buffalo mass-shooting….
Rounding Up Three Recent Section 230 Decisions
I’m trying to clear my blogging queue that backlogged during my China trip. Here are three Section 230 decisions from the last few weeks. Geegieh v. Unknown Parties, 2025 WL 1769766 (D. Ariz. June 26, 2025) The plaintiff claims that…
Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Proceeds Against TikTok and Instagram–Nazario v. Bytedance
This case involves the deadly practice of “subway surfing.” The plaintiff in this case claims her son died doing subway surfing that he tried only because he was encouraged by TikTok and Instagram videos. The court largely rejects the social…
Read the Published Version of My Paper Against Mandatory Online Age Authentication
The final published version of my paper, “The ‘Segregate-and-Suppress’ Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online,” is now available. Some more context about this publication: We’re on the cusp of major structural changes to the Internet as more websites and apps…
Facebook and Twitter Defeat Account Termination Lawsuit–Castronuova v. Meta
Per Wikipedia, Cara Castronuova is “an American champion boxer, a professional sports announcer, political activist and celebrity fitness trainer.” This topline summary understates her #MAGA bona fides. The Wikipedia entry also notes that she “was one of the organizers of…
Catching Up on the Bogus “Yelp Law” Litigation Campaign–Tao v. Uniqlo
[Personal note: the Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton ruling took a lot of wind out of my blogging sails. First, the opinion is pure Calvinball. It makes me question everything I know about Internet “Law” when courts shamelessly disregard precedent…
Prof. Goldman’s Statement on the Supreme Court’s Demolition of the Internet in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton
[Note: Greetings from Shanghai, where it’s almost 1 am and the Supreme Court has just demolished the Internet. I’m posting these remarks and then heading to bed, where I will curl up in a fetal position as I question everything…
YouTube Again Defeats FOSTA Lawsuit–In re YouTube Trafficking Litigation
[Note: my blogging hiatus is due to a trip to China. I will return to the US this weekend and presumably resume my regular blogging cadence then.] This is a confusing lawsuit that has been through several names, including “Sarah…