Colorado’s Mandatory Social Media “Warning Labels” Are Unconstitutional–NetChoice v. Weiser
[I’m so far behind in blogging the challenges to state Internet censorship laws. We’ll see if I can catch some of the ones I missed.] State censorship laws come in a variety of forms. Today’s post focuses on one of…
Addiction Lawsuit Against TikTok Can Proceed in Nevada–TikTok v. Nevada District Court
All eyes are on the social media addiction class action lawsuits in California federal and state courts, where the plaintiffs are getting close to conducting trials that pose existential implications for many of the major social media services. Meanwhile, in…
Court Dismisses Discrimination Claims from Facebook User Who Didn’t Get Wanted (?) Ads–Shah v. Woodbury
Shah alleges that “Woodbury and Facebook denied Shah, based on his age and gender, access to information about Woodbury’s educational services by choosing to make Woodbury’s advertisements on Facebook available only to a target demographic of female Facebook users between…
Another Facebook Account Termination, Another Failed Lawsuit–Karam v. Meta
This is a pro se case. The court summarizes: “Meta purportedly banned or restricted [Karam’s] Facebook account, which allegedly prevented him from advertising his business or from engaging with potential customers through Marketplace or Facebook’s Buy/Sell Groups.” The court dismisses…
Section 230 Preempts Predator Access Claims Against Apple, Snap, and Verizon–Joan Doe v. Snap
This blog post addresses a specific genre of Section 230 litigation that I call “predator access” cases. The cases involve a victim with an online profile who connects with a criminal who commits sexual abuse. The victim is often underage,…
My Testimony Against Mandatory Online Age Authentication
I recently gave oral testimony to a committee of the New Zealand Parliament doing an inquiry into children’s harms online. My testimony was capped at 10 minutes, so I distilled my remarks into my 13 top objections to mandatory online…
Patient’s Negative Review of Her Dentist Wasn’t a “Matter of Public Concern”–J&D Dental v. Hou
Over a dozen years ago, I did a whole thing about healthcare providers suing their patients for defamation. I helped build the DoctoredReviews website to advocate against Medical Justice’s weaponization of copyright and contracts to get around Section 230. I…
Court Fetishizes Facebook’s TOS Statement That It Takes “Appropriate” Content Moderation Actions–Calise v. Meta
This is the remand of the disastrous Ninth Circuit decision, where a TAFS judge launched a wrecking ball into the Ninth Circuit’s Section 230 jurisprudence. When the dust settled, the 9th Circuit ruling enables plaintiffs to plead around Section 230…
Section 230 Applies to Surreptitiously Recorded Video–Does 1-9 v. Pornhub and xHamster
This case involves surreptitiously created NCP videos from a college locker room. (Note: this is not a new issue for Section 230–the Doe v. GTE 7th Circuit decision dealt with similar facts in 2003). Murphy allegedly set up the cameras….
Court Greenlights Politician’s Censorship of Social Media Comments–Fox v. Faison
Rep. Jeremy Faison is a Republican Tennessee state representative in what is a hugely Republican district (for example, his district includes Cocke County, which voted 83% for Trump in 2024). He also is the chamber’s Republican Caucus Chairman. He came…