Facebook Isn't Liable For Fake User Account Containing Non-Consensual Pornography--Caraccioli v. Facebook (Forbes Cross-Post)

Facebook Isn’t Liable For Fake User Account Containing Non-Consensual Pornography–Caraccioli v. Facebook (Forbes Cross-Post)

Franco Caraccioli is a third-year law student in San Diego. For reasons not explained in the opinion, someone created a fake Facebook account named “Franco Caracciolijerkingman” and posted photos and videos of Caraccioli “sexually arousing or pleasuring himself.” (All facts…

Customer Loses Suit Over Employees' Disparaging Facebook Posts--Howard v. Hertz

Customer Loses Suit Over Employees’ Disparaging Facebook Posts–Howard v. Hertz

This is a case involving allegedly discriminatory and disparaging Facebook posts made by a Hertz employee. A customer (Maurice Howard) alleged that he was the subject of a Facbook posts and comments by Hertz employees. The initial post, by Shawn…

Posting Vacation Photos To Facebook Costs An Employee His Job--Jones v. Accentia (Forbes Cross-Post)

Posting Vacation Photos To Facebook Costs An Employee His Job–Jones v. Accentia (Forbes Cross-Post)

[Note: inexplicably, over at Forbes, this became my most-read blog post ever, with about a quarter-million views–even though it’s a short, breezy and quickly written post that I posted during the dead time of Sunday mid-morning.] Before the Internet, people…

Courtney Love Defeats Twibel Claims--Holmes v. Love

Courtney Love Defeats Twibel Claims–Holmes v. Love

Courtney Love Cobain, tweeting with two twitter users (“fairnewsspears” and “noozjunkie”), stated she: was fucking devasted when Rhonda J. Holmes, Esquire, of San Diego was bought off @FairNewsSpears perhaps you can get a quote Holmes was a lawyer who had…

Section 230 Doesn't Protect Summaries of Third Party Remarks--Diamond Ranch Academy v. Filer

Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Summaries of Third Party Remarks–Diamond Ranch Academy v. Filer

Diamond Ranch Academy runs a “residential youth treatment facility” in Utah. Chelsea Filer (nee Chelsea Papciak) runs a website, DRASurvivors.com, critical of Diamond Ranch Academy. Diamond Ranch Academy sued her for defamation and tortious interference in Utah. For reasons not…

High Schooler's "Murder" Tweet Isn't "Cyberstalking"--State v. Kohonen

High Schooler’s “Murder” Tweet Isn’t “Cyberstalking”–State v. Kohonen

Ruh roh. Teens and Twitter. What could possibly go wrong? In 8th grade, SG reported Jessica Kohonen’s behavior, which led to her suspension. [Note: the court uses the alias JK in the opinion but the caption has Jessica’s full name….

Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2015 (Forbes Cross-Post)

Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2015 (Forbes Cross-Post)

I’m pleased to present my annual list of top Internet Law developments from the past year. As the years go by, increasingly the most important Internet Law developments/crackdowns are occurring internationally, but I tried to focus on U.S. developments. 10)…

What's the Legal Definition of a "Social Media Site"? Uh... (People v. Lopez)

What’s the Legal Definition of a “Social Media Site”? Uh… (People v. Lopez)

I’ve previously discussed “social media exceptionalism,” i.e., the development of legal rules applicable only to social media predicated on the assumption that it’s somehow unique, special or different from other media, online or off. I’ve never found a principled justification…

Posting Mocking Photo To Social Media May Be Tortious....If You're Shaq--Binion v. O'Neal

Posting Mocking Photo To Social Media May Be Tortious….If You’re Shaq–Binion v. O’Neal

Jahmel Binion alleges that Shaquille O’Neal posted to Instagram and Twitter a picture of him that portrayed Binion in a derogatory capacity. Binion suffers from a skin disease that left him disfigured. Shaq posted a picture of Binion side-by-side with…

Section 230 Doesn't Protect Email Forwarding of Screenshotted Tweets?--Maxfield v. Maxfield

Section 230 Doesn’t Protect Email Forwarding of Screenshotted Tweets?–Maxfield v. Maxfield

This case is a spinout ancillary lawsuit from the main divorce proceedings between the parties, and neither party was represented by a lawyer in this case. Given those attributes, this case may not be good precedent, but I’m blogging it…