A Roundup of Recent Section 230 Decisions Involving Sex Abuse or CSAM
Another lengthy blog post rounding up cases from the past few months involving CSAM or commercial sex and Section 230/FOSTA. Doe #1 v. MG Freesites, Ltd., 2025 WL 1314179 (N.D. Ala. May 6, 2025) Prior blog posts (1, 2). Previously…
Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Online Review of a Chicago Dater–D’Ambrosio v. Rajala
The plaintiff in this case is Nikko D’Ambrosio. He recently served time in prison for tax issues. Separately, he brought a lawsuit over the “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” Facebook group, run by Spill the Tea, “where women can…
YouTuber Loses Lawsuit Over Account Suspension–Hall v. YouTube
The court summarizes the facts: In April 2024, Hall became involved in a public feud with another YouTube user, “MoneyBoy Tr3y,” (Tr3y”) which led to the exchange of multiple DMCA takedown notices between the two. Hall alleges that Tr3y submitted…
Addiction Lawsuit Against Character AI Can Proceed–Garcia v. Character Technologies
Online addiction lawsuits are proliferating across the country, a trend that will continue so long as plaintiffs think they can win. This decision largely rejects the defendants’ motion to dismiss, which will induce more plaintiff lawyers to bring more cases….
Video Game Addiction Case Mostly Sent to Arbitration–Orellana v. Roblox (Catch-up Post)
[Introductory note: This case appeared in my alerts recently. It is one of the many video game addiction lawsuits percolating throughout the courts nationwide. I don’t have a census of all of those cases because they aren’t hitting my alerts….
School Board Official Censored Constituent by Blocking Access to Their Social Media Account–Garnier v. O’Connor-Ratcliff
This case involves two PUSD school board members, O’Connor-Ratcliff and Zane, who “used their public Facebook and Twitter pages to post about goings-on at PUSD and their activities as Trustees.” The court summarizes: “In response to the Garniers’ numerous critical…
Amazon Merchant Takedown Notice Attack Spills Over to Court–GM Photo v. Focus Camera
[Note: lawsuits over takedown notice attacks occur occasionally. I’m blogging this case as an exemplar, not because it’s unique.] This case involves two Amazon marketplace merchants, GM Photo (operating as Digital Village) and Focus Camera. At issue are “high-end Sigma…
More Account Termination Cases Fail in Court
The account termination lawsuits keep coming, so I’ll keep blogging them. Housman v. Meta Platforms, Inc., 2025 WL 1249157 (D. Nev. April 29, 2025) This is a pro se/in pro per case. “Plaintiff’s Complaint alleges Defendants Meta, TikTok, X, and…
Section 230 and the First Amendment Curtail An Online Videogame Addiction Lawsuit–Angelilli v. Activision
The court summarizes the plaintiffs’ allegations: D.G. began playing video games when he was six years old and at some point became addicted. Plaintiffs further allege that D.G.’s gaming has resulted in serious harm, including emotional distress, lost friends, and…
Court Permanently Enjoins Ohio’s Segregate-and-Suppress/Parental Consent Law–NetChoice v. Yost
Ohio enacted a segregate-and-suppress law that requires regulated websites to obtain parental consent before minors can access certain site features. In early 2024, the court granted a preliminary injunction against the law going into effect. Borrowing heavily from its prior…