Woman Fired For Pro-Trump Tweet Gets Unemployment Benefits–Waverly Heights v. Jungclaus
I just blogged on a case involving Facebook’s suspension of a Bowling Green Massacre gaslighter. Today, I’m blogging about a woman fired for a pro-Trump tweet. It’s pretty clear my blogging queue will be overflowing with Trump-related litigation for years to come. #MALGA…
Commemorating the 20 Year Anniversary of Zeran v. AOL
You’re probably already quite familiar with the Fourth Circuit’s 1997 in Zeran v. AOL. The case is one of the most cited Internet Law cases of all time, and it is a staple of Internet Law course syllabi around the country and…
Facebook Defeats Lawsuit By User Suspended Over ‘Bowling Green Massacre’–Shulman v. Facebook
This lawsuit is detritus from the KellyAnne Conway “Bowling Green Massacre” fiasco. You may recall that Conway, in her official White House role, referred to a “massacre” at Bowling Green that never happened. The plaintiff says he posted articles to Facebook allegedly…
Repeated Unwanted Emails to Politician’s Personal Email Address Can be Harassment–Hagedorn v. Cattani
This is a First Amendment retaliation case. Plaintiff alleges that local officials retaliated against her for exercising her First Amendment rights. One of the defendants is mayor of the small village where plaintiff resided (Timberlake, “a small village of six-…
YouTube Defeats Defamation Claim in ‘Remove-and-Relocate’ Case–Bartholomew v. YouTube
YouTube has been sued numerous times for “removing-and-relocating” videos it thinks were promoted by spam. When it does a remove-and-relocate, YouTube takes down the video, discloses at the original URL that “This video has been removed because its content violated YouTube’s…
How SESTA Undermines Section 230’s Good Samaritan Provisions
The following is my response to Questions for the Record submitted by Sen. Cortez Masto. Given that she has already co-sponsored SESTA following the Manager’s Amendment and IA’s flip, my response may be too late to matter (not that it would…
Would Shutting Down Backpage Reduce Violence Against Women? (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Alex Levy Many activists assert that the proliferation of online platforms that facilitate commercial sex has led to increased rates of exploitation and violence against women. This belief has motivated a slew of wide-ranging attacks against websites…
Manager’s Amendment for SESTA Slightly Improves a Still-Terrible Bill
On Friday, a Manager’s Amendment to SESTA was announced. The good news is that its revised language slightly improved the bill. The bad news is that SESTA remains bad policy. The worse news is that SESTA is now well-positioned to pass the Senate Commerce Committee and…
US Court Protects Google From Canadian Court’s Delisting Order–Google v. Equustek
[It’s impossible to blog about Section 230 without reminding you that it remains highly imperiled.] Datalink allegedly misappropriated Equustek’s trade secrets to develop competitive products. Equustek sued Datalink in Canadian courts and obtained various court orders. The Datalink principal fled Canada…
Another Human Trafficking Expert Raises Concerns About SESTA (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Nyssa P. Chopra I’ve been an advocate of anti-human trafficking initiatives since I first became involved with the issue when I worked at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement….