Section 230 Doesn’t Apply to High Schoolers’ Online Bullying–Kutchinski v. Freeland Community School District
HK built an Instagram account impersonating a teacher. He “made one innocuous post on the account.” He unwisely shared the login credentials with two classmates, KL and LF. Those classmates made “incendiary posts” about other teachers (and tagged those teachers)…
Section 230 Immunizes Snap, Even if It’s “Inherently Dangerous”–L.W. v. Snap
Predators allegedly used Snap to groom minors for sex and to obtain CSAM from them. The plaintiffs asserted products liability and related claims against Snap, on the premise that Snap “is an inherently dangerous software product that Defendants deceptively advertise…
Google Isn’t Liable for Scam Ads–Ynfante v. Google
Ynfante responded to a scam ad shown when he Google-searched for “ebay customer service number,” and he called a phishing farm instead of eBay. “After Mr. Ynfante divulged his account information to the scam helpline, the scammers made purchases on…
Section 230 Once Again Immunizes Google’s Search Results–Metroka v. PA Law Enforcement
In June 2022, Nadia Metroka (a Florida lawyer, apparently) was arrested in Pennsylvania. “Information about the arrest was published on the Montgomery County Crimewatch website, and it was ‘picked up by GOOGLE’s search engine.’” (Is this the news release in…
Sad that Twitter Deplatformed Trump? Don’t Take It to Court–Rutenberg v. Twitter
Maria Rutenberg apparently found Trump’s tweets so meaningful that she sued Twitter for deplatforming Trump and subtracting that meaning from her life. Rutenberg can now scratch her Trump itch at Truth Social, plus Musk has invited Trump back to Twitter….
Class Certification Denied Over Rightsowners’ Demands for Content ID Access–Schneider v. YouTube
The court summarizes the case: “plaintiffs allege that YouTube has violated the copyright laws by withholding broad access to Content ID….Plaintiffs also allege that YouTube automatically strips metadata out of uploaded videos, including copyright management information (CMI), which makes it…
More Thoughts about the SCOTUS Twitter and Google Rulings
[I did a media interview about last week’s Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google rulings. The transcript:] What got you into the field of internet law? What is most interesting in the field right now? I have been researching…
Ill-Advised Attempt to Blow Up the DMCA Online Safe Harbors Unsurprisingly Fails–Athos v. YouTube
Athos owns the copyrights to many classic Mexican films. Users regularly upload its film clips to YouTube. These uploads have irritated Athos since 2014. However, Athos rejected YouTube’s fast-lane options for copyright owners (such as the Copyright Match Tool, Content…
Roundup of Recent Section 230 Developments
Sometimes the Section 230 developments come faster than I can blog ’em, so they pile up in my queue. This post cleans the queue. * * * A.M. v. Omegle.com, LLC, 2023 WL 1470269 (D. Ore. Feb. 2, 2023). A…
The Internet Survives SCOTUS Review (This Time)–Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google
Today was the 2023 Super Bowl of Internet Law at the U.S. Supreme Court [FN]. SCOTUS issued two eagerly awaited decisions in the Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google cases (as well as decisions in the Warhol copyright fair…