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…
Twitter Defeats Trump’s Deplatforming Lawsuit–Trump v. Twitter
In July 2021, Trump sued Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for terminating/suspending his accounts. At the time, I made a 6-step prediction for how the lawsuits would go: Step 3 in the Twitter case, the transfer from Florida to California, occurred…
Section 512(c) Protects Pinterest Despite Its Algorithms–Davis v. Pinterest
“Plaintiff contends that Pinterest has infringed the copyrights of 51 of his works by displaying these works in proximity to advertisements and by displaying and distributing them to users via notifications.” The court gives this screenshot as an example. Davis’…
Facebook Can’t Shake Publicity Rights Claim–Hepp v. Facebook
Third parties created ads featuring Hepp without her consent. From the complaint (Hepp is the upper right image; the photo was taken from security camera footage): Facebook ran some of the ads featuring Hepp’s image. The district court dismissed Hepp’s…
Constitutional Challenge to FOSTA Fails–Woodhull v. US
The EFF is leading a constitutional challenge to FOSTA. The district court initially rejected standing, but the DC Circuit reversed that decision in 2020 and found standing for at least two plaintiffs. On remand, the district court rejects all of…