There Is No Bottom When It Comes to Section 230 Reform Proposals (Comments on the Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act)
When I first saw the Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act. my draft version didn’t identify its sponsors. I assumed it was yet another sloppy and unserious Section 230 reform proposal from representatives like Rep. Gosar or Gohmert. You can imagine…
Section 230 Protects Securities Exchange–Saveene v. Remo
This case involves an alleged case of corporate hijacking. The plaintiff alleges that it bought a controlling interest in a corporate entity opaquely named American Diversified Holdings Corp. (“ADHC”) from Remo. Remo then allegedly dissolved the Nevada entity and, without…
Eleventh Circuit Rejects “Material Support for Terrorists” Case–Colon v. Twitter
This is one of the many lawsuits against social media services for allegedly providing material support to terrorists. These cases have all failed–with the partial exception of the Ninth Circuit meltdown (3 judges; 3 opinions) in Gonzalez v. Google LLC,…
Trump Has to Litigate His Must-Carry Lawsuit in YouTube’s Home Court–Trump v. YouTube
In July, Trump et al sued Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in Florida for terminating his accounts. At the time, I laid out a 6-step prediction for how things would go: We’ve reached Step 2 in the YouTube case. Based on…
The Legal Implications of Datacenter Location (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Marketa Trimble The location of a datacenter matters—the location of third-party datacenters affects companies’ (datacenter customers’) decisions whether to use the datacenters for colocation or other services. Part of any assessment of the suitability of a datacenter…
Does the First Amendment Permit Government Actors to Manage Social Media Comments?–Tanner v. Ziegenhorn
This case involves Tanner’s comments on the Arkansas State Police’s Facebook page. The court’s ruling raises interesting, but troubling, questions about any government actor’s ability to enable reader comments on social media. The Manually Deleted Comment One State Police post…
The SHOP SAFE Act Is a Terrible Bill That Will Eliminate Online Marketplaces
[Note: this blog post covers Rep. Nadler’s manager’s amendment for the SHOP SAFE Act, which I think will be the basis of a committee markup hearing tomorrow. If Congress were well-functioning, draft bills going into markup would be circulated a…
For the Third Time, a Second Circuit Panel Dismisses an Online Account Termination Case–Domen v. Vimeo
A 3-judge panel has issued its third opinion in Domen v. Vimeo, a lawsuit alleging that Vimeo committed unlawful discrimination by terminating his account. How does an appellate panel reach a third opinion in the same case? It issued its…
Law Enforcement’s Efforts to Scrub COVID “Misinformation” Online Violated the First Amendment–Cohoon v. Konrath
Amyiah Cohoon is a high schooler in central Wisconsin. In March 2020, she contracted a respiratory illness. A COVID test came back negative, but the doctor told her it may be a false negative and told her to quarantine. She…
Texas Enacts Social Media Censorship Law to Benefit Anti-Vaxxers & Spammers
State legislatures are competing with each other to see who can enact the most ill-advised laws to impose censorship on the Internet. Florida made a splash enacting its social media censorship bill SB 7072, only to have a federal district…