Who Benefited from FOSTA? (Spoiler: Probably No One)
This post rounds up some FOSTA-related links I’ve aggregated over the past few months. There is no good news here. The data points suggest that in FOSTA’s first 9 months, it apparently has failed all of its policy goals while…
Fourth Amendment Limits NYC’s Demands for Airbnb Customer Records
As part of its ongoing crackdown on short-term lodging, New York City passed an anti-Airbnb ordinance scheduled to take effect next month. HomeAway was also affected by the law, but I’ll focus on Airbnb. The ordinance addresses the challenges faced…
Blocking Constituents from Facebook Page Violates First Amendment–Davison v. Randall
The Chair of Loudoun County Board of Supervisors blocked a constituent on her official Facebook page. While the block was temporary, Davison, the constituent, filed a lawsuit, and prevailed after a bench trial. The Fourth Circuit affirms the main points….
Must Universities Shut Down Constitutionally Protected Speech Forums That Also Enable Student Harassment?
This case involves an uproar at University of Mary Washington over Yik Yak, the now-departed social media service that enabled geofenced anonymous comments. Initially, “Within the Yik Yak conversational thread available at UMW, several students expressed — in offensive terms…
Announcing COMO Brussels, the Fourth Edition of the “Content Moderation at Scale” Conference Series, Feb. 5
I’m pleased to announce that there will be a fourth edition of the popular content moderation conference series, this time in Brussels. The event is titled “Content Moderation & Removal at Scale” and will be held on February 5, 2019,…
2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 6 (IP, E-Commerce, Censorship, & More)
Intellectual Property * Daniel v. FanDuel (Ind. Oct. 24, 2018): “online fantasy sports operators that condition entry to contests on payment and distribute cash prizes do not violate the Indiana right of publicity statute when those organizations use the names, pictures,…
2H 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Privacy, Advertising, Consumer Reviews)
Privacy * Winston Smith v. Facebook, No. 17-16206 (9th Cir. Dec. 6, 2018): “the connection between a person’s browsing history and his or her own state of health is too tenuous to support Plaintiffs’ contention that the disclosure requirements of…
Ninth Lawsuit Against Social Media Providers for “Materially Supporting Terrorists” Fails–Clayborn v. Twitter
This is the ninth different case where a court concludes that social media services aren’t liable for providing “material support” to terrorists. This particular litigation involves the San Bernardino shooting, but the underlying incident doesn’t matter much. Instead, the court…
Best and Worst Internet Laws [Repost from Concurring Opinions’ Archive]
[In 2007, I guest-blogged at the group law professor blog Concurring Opinions. With the demise of that blog, I am now archiving my guest posts on my own blog. This post first appeared on February 15, 2007.] __ [Preface: I’ve already…
MySpace Sued for Facilitating Offline Sexual Assaults [Repost from Concurring Opinions’ Archive]
[In 2007, I guest-blogged at the group law professor blog Concurring Opinions. With the demise of that blog, I am now archiving my guest posts on my own blog. This post first appeared on January 18, 2007.] AP reports that four families…