Section 230 Preempts Claims Against Omegle–M.H. v. Omegle
Omegle enables real-time video and text chats with users assigned at random. The case involves an 11 year old girl who was a first-time Omegle user. The complaint alleges that a malefactor John Doe manipulated her into disrobing so he…
Catching Up on the 11th Circuit Appeal in NetChoice v. Moody Over Florida’s Social Media Censorship Law
As you recall, earlier this year Florida passed SB 7072, a brazenly censorial #MAGA bill. The district court enjoined the law, and Florida appealed to the 11th Circuit. In my last post, I recapped Florida’s appeal brief and the supporting…
Retweets Didn’t Reset Defamation Statute of Limitations–Crosswhite v. Reuters
Benjamin Crosswhite traveled in Jerry Falwell Jr.’s orbit. Reuters published allegedly defamatory stories about Crosswhite in August and September 2019. Crosswhite sued Reuters for defamation in March 2021. Virginia has a 1 year statute of limitations (SOL), which had a…
Fifth Circuit Issues an Important Online Jurisdiction Ruling–Johnson v. HuffPost
This is the most interesting Internet personal jurisdiction opinion I’ve read in years. I know that sounds like damning with faint praise, because many of you cannot find much enthusiasm about any jurisdiction ruling. Well, get excited about this one….
Antitrust Law Doesn’t Prevent Apple From Rejecting Apps From Its App Store–Coronavirus Reporter v. Apple
This case involves two apps that Apple rejected from its app store. The Coronavirus Reporter app “sought to collect ‘bioinformatics data’ from users about COVID-19 symptoms that it would then share with ‘other users and [unidentified] epidemiology researchers.’” Sounds sketchy…
Airbnb Uses Section 230 to Defeat a Personal Injury Claim–Smith v. Airbnb
I was a little surprised by this ruling. The Ninth Circuit’s HomeAway ruling seemingly eliminated Section 230 for any transactions that Airbnb booked, at least in the Ninth Circuit. Yet, this court finds that Section 230 fully protects Airbnb…amazingly without…
Armslist Loses Two Section 230 Rulings, But Still Defeats Both Lawsuits
Armslist has become a critical player for Section 230 jurisprudence in Wisconsin. It’s not going well for Armslist or Section 230. Due to the Seventh Circuit’s troubled Section 230 jurisprudence, two federal district judges in Wisconsin ruled that Armslist didn’t…
Yearbook Defendants Lose Two More Section 230 Rulings
2021 has seen the emergence of a litigation genre against “yearbook” database vendors that publish old yearbooks online. I’ve blogged three yearbook cases so far this year (Callahan v. Ancestry, Knapke v. Classmates, and Sessa v. Ancestry), and today I’ll…
The U.S. Department of Justice Defends Section 230’s Constitutionality
The DOJ stirred up some chatter when it announced that it was defending Section 230’s constitutionality in Trump’s lawsuits against the social media services. I wasn’t sure why so many people were buzzing about the move. The DOJ had previously…
Court Enjoins Texas’ Attempt to Censor Social Media, and the Opinion Is a Major Development in Internet Law–NetChoice v. Paxton
Earlier this year, the Texas legislature enacted HB 20, a blatant attempt to censor social media service. The Texas law emulated a similar Florida censorship law. In June, a Florida district court enjoined based on the First Amendment and Section…