Florida Hits a New Censorial Low in Internet Regulation (Comments on SB 7072)
This blog post reviews Florida’s Transparency in Technology Act, SB 7072. Like other recent efforts to censor the Internet (such as Trump’s anti-230 EO), this law is performative garbage. It was never a serious attempt at crafting good policy. Florida…
YouTuber Doesn’t Qualify as a Member of the “News Media”–Green v. Pierce County
Green runs a YouTube channel called “Libertys Champion” (with 18k subscribers now). Green had a scuffle with a Pierce County security guard, so he submitted public records requests to obtain more information about the county’s security force. The county provided…
Court Rejects Content Moderators’ Lawsuit Over Traumatic Work–Garrett-Alfred v. Facebook
I’ve heard many tragic stories from content reviewers about the personal challenges associated with their jobs, both during and after employment. As heartbreaking as those stories are, it’s never been clear to me what legal remedies might apply to those…
What Would Happen If Search Engines Had to Give Higher Visibility to Less Relevant Results?
I’m reporting on a study by Bin Han, Chirag Shah, and Daniel Saelid called “Users’ Perception of Search Engine Biases and Satisfaction.” The authors showed two pages of Bing results to study participants. (An aside: Bing…really?) The first page was…
Facebook’s “Russia State-Controlled Media” Disclosure Doesn’t Violate the Lanham Act–Maffick v. Facebook
Maffick runs several Facebook pages. Due to Maffick’s possible ties to the Russian government, Facebook labeled the pages “Russia state-controlled media.” Maffick sued Facebook. In Sept. 2020, the court denied Maffick’s TRO request. Now, the court has dismissed the Lanham…
The Ninth Circuit’s Confusing Ruling Over Snapchat’s Speed Filter–Lemmon v. Snap
This is a tricky opinion to decipher. This opinion might say that Section 230 categorically doesn’t apply if the plaintiff claims an Internet service is defectively designed. That reading would largely reject the important First Circuit Doe v. Backpage ruling…
Comments on the Oversight Board’s Decision Regarding Trump’s Facebook Account
Today, the Oversight Board issued its decision regarding Facebook’s decision to suspend Trump’s account for two posts Trump made during the January 6 insurrection. The decision covers a lot of ground (it’s nearly 12k words), and I’ll only cover part…
11th Circuit Says Grocery Store Website Isn’t Covered by the ADA–Gil v. Winn-Dixie
Winn-Dixie is a major grocery store chain in the South. Their website offers multiple functions, but does NOT take grocery orders online. The website features at issue in this case are the ability to refill prescriptions online and to link…
YouTube (Again) Defeats Lawsuit Over Content Removal–Lewis v. Google
Lewis ran a YouTube channel, “Misandry Today.” (Misandry = hatred of men). He claims YouTube removed or demonetized some of his videos. The district court rejected his lawsuit. In a short unpublished memo opinion that basically echoes the district court’s…
When It Came to @RealDonaldTrump, Twitter Couldn’t Please Everyone–Rutenberg v. Twitter
The plaintiff Maria Rutenberg (a lawyer, perhaps not surprisingly) was unhappy Twitter shut down the @realdonaldtrump account, which meant she lost the opportunity to read and engage with Trump’s tweets. So, represented by a lawyer (Mark Javitch), she sued Twitter…