The Internet Rallies Against A Terrible Section 230 Ruling–Hassell v. Bird
2016 has been a tough year for Section 230 jurisprudence, and the nadir (so far) was the appellate court ruling in Hassell v. Bird. As you recall, the case involves some negative Yelp reviews about an attorney, Hassell. Hassell sued…
Section 230 Immunizes Twitter From Liability For ISIS’s Terrorist Activities–Fields v. Twitter
Abu Zaid, an alleged “lone wolf,” killed two American contractors in Jordan. ISIS claimed responsibility for the deaths, but “Plaintiffs do not allege that ISIS recruited or communicated with Abu Zaid over Twitter, that ISIS or Abu Zaid used Twitter…
Repeat Plaintiff Can’t Sue Search Engines Because Employers Won’t Hire Him–Despot v. Baltimore Life Insurance
The plaintiff, David Despot, has “filed many cases in various courts over the years.” Apparently there is some disagreement about the exact number: “Casetext indicates that its own website reveals 10 lawsuits, BLIC refers specifically to 5, Google states that…
County Employee Properly Terminated for Facebook Posts Criticizing Police–Palmer v. Anoka
This is another case of an employee terminated for Facebook posts. Leah Palmer worked as a spokesperson for Anthony Palumbo, the Anoka County Attorney. Among her responsibilities were to serve as liaison between Palumbo and Sheriff Stuart (and other law…
Blogger Doing Investigative Research Defeats Personal Jurisdiction–FireClean v. Tuohy
FireClean sells an eponymous cleaning oil, FIREClean, “advertised to reduce carbon residue buildup in firearms.” Andrew Tuohy blogs about firearms at the Vuurwapen blog (Dutch for “firearms”). Allegations swirled that FIREClean was just Crisco. Tuohy worked with a University of…
Message Board Operator May Be Liable For Moderator’s Content–Enigma v. Bleeping
It’s been a brutal year for Section 230 jurisprudence, and the hits keep coming. In today’s case, the parties ran into a judge who seemed unshakably determined–for reasons I can’t determine–to deny the motion to dismiss. This produces an outlier…
Internet Troll’s “Political Shenanigans” Are Protected Speech–State v. Hirschman (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Prof. Jane Bambauer, University of Arizona James E. Rodgers College of Law Aaron Hirschman, a self-proclaimed “Internet troll,” posted the following message on Craigslist: Wanna make an easy $20 for voting? (Downtown Bend) Are you interested in…
Yelp Isn’t Liable For User-Submitted Photos Of Businesses–Albert v. Yelp
The last time I blogged about a lawyer who sued Yelp for defamation, I spilled 3,000 words (and shed many tears). Fortunately for my mental health and your reading queue, I’m pleased to report that today’s case has better–and more…
Q2 2016 Quick Links, Part 3 (Defamation, Online Reviews, Section 230)
Defamation * Pritchard v. Van Nes, 2016 BCSC 686 (April 20, 2016): Ms. Van Nes was responsible for the defamatory comments of her [Facebook] “friends”. When the posts were printed off, on the afternoon of June 10th, her various replies…
Q2 2016 Quick Links, Part 2 (Terrorism Content, Hate Speech, Thiel/Gawker, Censorship & More)
Terrorism Content * Washington Post: “There’s a new tool to take down terrorism images online. But social media companies are wary of it.” For good reason. If all it takes to scrub content permanently is to deem it “terrorism content,”…