Section 230 Helps Salesforce Defeat Sex Trafficking Lawsuit–GG v. Salesforce
This is another lawsuit where the plaintiff claims to have been sex trafficked on Backpage. Backpage used Salesforce as its CRM vendor, so the plaintiff claims Salesforce should be liable for the victimization. I’m aware of two other decisions involving…
Is Google’s Search Engine a “Common Carrier”? (Seriously???)–Ohio ex rel Yost v. Google
This is a crazy case. Ohio AG Yost claims that Google’s search engine is a common carrier and a public utility. Nominally, his goal is to redress Google self-preferencing, but that’s a transparently pretextual excuse to censor search results and…
Big Ruling for Free Speech: Most of Florida’s Social Media Censorship Law (SB 7072) Remains Enjoined–NetChoice v. Attorney General
On Monday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit issued an important Internet free speech opinion, NetChoice v. Attorney General (a/k/a NetChoice v. Moody). The opinion holds that the key parts of Florida’s social media censorship law (SB 7072)…
Rounding Up the Supreme Court Briefs in NetChoice v. Paxton, the Challenge to Texas HB20’s Social Media Censorship Law
A quick recap: last summer, Texas passed HB20, a #MAGA messaging bill that poses existential threats to the Internet as we know it. NetChoice and CCIA led a lawsuit seeking to enjoin most of it. In December, the federal district…
Twitter Defeats Another Account Suspension Lawsuit–Al-Ahmed v Twitter
This case involves the tragic situation where two Twitter employees allegedly became operatives for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and turned over sensitive information about the government’s critics to the Saudi Arabia government. I’m going to focus solely on Twitter’s…
My SCOTUS Amicus Brief on Texas HB20’s Unconstitutional Transparency Requirements
Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved the existing injunction against Texas HB 20, the so-called social media censorship law, in a one-sentence order. The entire order says: “IT IS ORDERED that appellant’s opposed motion to stay preliminary…
Three More Yearbook/People Database Cases Signal Trouble for Defendants
Yearbook/people database opinions are being issued faster than I can blog them. They are not going well for defendants. The opinions are so lengthy and repetitive that I’m just going to cut-and-paste the parts I think are relatively noteworthy. Sorry…
If TOS Formation Fails, Bad Legal Outcomes Are Likely to Follow–Doe v. Roblox
This case involves Roblox, a virtual world. Allegedly, a majority of Roblox users are under 13. Roblox has an in-game currency, Robux. Users can manufacture virtual items in-game, and other users can buy those items using Robux, with Roblox taking…
Section 230 Protects Retweeting–Banaian v. Bascom
[I’m forestalling more analysis of the Texas social media censorship law until we get some clarity on what happened and what’s next.] A student hacked the school website and added scandalous content about a teacher, Debbie Banaian, a/k/a “Banaianator.” [Aside:…
COVID Skeptic Loses Lawsuit Over Account Terminations–Hart v. Facebook
Both Facebook and Twitter restricted Hart’s account access due to various posts over COVID, masking, and other culture war issues. Hart sued them for violating the First Amendment. You can guess how that went. The court says they are not…