Ninth Circuit Says Section 230 Preempts "Defective Design" Claims--Doe v. Grindr

Ninth Circuit Says Section 230 Preempts “Defective Design” Claims–Doe v. Grindr

I previously summarized this case: Doe created a Grindr account at age 15 (Doe claimed he was 18). He matched with 4 men. “Doe met each man in person and was sexually assaulted and raped.” Three of the men are…

Facebook Compelled to Comply With Washington Political Ad Transparency Law (Catch-Up Post)--State v. Meta

Facebook Compelled to Comply With Washington Political Ad Transparency Law (Catch-Up Post)–State v. Meta

[This opinion from December got stuck in my blogging queue. I’m blogging it now as part of my ongoing efforts to highlight the censorial effects of mandatory editorial transparency laws.] Washington’s Fair Campaign Practices Act “requires Meta to maintain certain…

Recapping Three Social Media Addiction Opinions from Fall (Catch-Up Post)

Recapping Three Social Media Addiction Opinions from Fall (Catch-Up Post)

The Northern District of California issued three opinions, totaling over 150 pages, in rapid succession over 3 weeks last Fall. The opinions came out faster than I could blog them. I’m not going to comprehensively blog each of the opinions,…

District Court Blocks More of Texas' Segregate-and-Suppress Law (HB 18)--SEAT v. Paxton

District Court Blocks More of Texas’ Segregate-and-Suppress Law (HB 18)–SEAT v. Paxton

Texas enacted HB 18, a typical smorgasbord law packed full of policy ideas–all bad and undertheorized–under the pretext of protecting kids online. In September, the court enjoined part of the law. See CCIA v. Paxton. Now, the court enjoins much…

Section 230 Immunizes OnlyFans for User-Uploaded Video (Again)–Doe v. Fenix

Section 230 Immunizes OnlyFans for User-Uploaded Video (Again)–Doe v. Fenix

A prior ruling summarized the facts the court describes as “harrowing”: In April 2022, Defendant Bendjy Charles (“Charles”) and Romelus raped Plaintiff. Charles and Romelus filmed each other while they raped Plaintiff.  Romelus subsequently uploaded video footage of Romelus and…

Section 230 Still Works in the Fourth Circuit (For Now)--M.P. v. Meta

Section 230 Still Works in the Fourth Circuit (For Now)–M.P. v. Meta

I’m going to classify this ruling as a “big deal,” with the crucial caveat that Section 230 is still doomed and this ruling doesn’t reverse that. Given how judges have turned against Section 230, at this point any appellate ruling…

Section 230 Protects Newspaper's Removal of User Comments--Affleck v. Harvard Crimson

Section 230 Protects Newspaper’s Removal of User Comments–Affleck v. Harvard Crimson

Here’s a twist. The plaintiff in this case, Jonathan Affleck, was the plaintiff in Martillo v. Twitter, but he sued then under a nom de plume. The court issues him a chastising warning against using unauthorized pseudonyms. In this case,…

Glassdoor Partially Fixes a Bad Section 230 Ruling--Nicholas Services v. Glassdoor

Glassdoor Partially Fixes a Bad Section 230 Ruling–Nicholas Services v. Glassdoor

This case involves two interrelated companies in the private jet industry. One entity (Nicholas Air) was the public brand. The other entity (Corr Flight) provided all of the staffing to the public brand. Employees from the staffing company posted negative…

Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban, and Domestic and Foreign Censors Rejoice--TikTok v. Garland

Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban, and Domestic and Foreign Censors Rejoice–TikTok v. Garland

In 2024, Congress enacted, and President Biden signed, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which bans “foreign adversary” ownership of certain types of Internet services. The bill specifically bans Bytedance/TikTok by name. TikTok and its users challenged…

Initial Comments on the Supreme Court's TikTok Ban Opinion--TikTok v. Garland

Initial Comments on the Supreme Court’s TikTok Ban Opinion–TikTok v. Garland

[A much longer post is forthcoming. A few initial remarks] [Update: the longer post is live, and it includes these remarks and 4,000 other words. I recommend you read that instead of this] The Supreme Court’s ruling will foster more…