Important Second Circuit Opinion Says Section 230(c)(2)(A) Protects Online Account Terminations–Domen v. Vimeo
Vimeo is a video hosting service. Domen is a “former homosexual.” He posted videos to Vimeo that allegedly violated Vimeo’s policy against “the promotion of sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE). Vimeo notified Domen of the violation and gave him 24…
Comments on the PROMISE Act
Senators Lee, Braun, and Moran introduced the “Promoting Responsibility Over Moderation In the Social-media Environment Act,” the “PROMISE Act.” (It’s a reintroduction of S. 4975 from last session). This is a transparency-focused bill that partially overlaps with last year’s PACT…
Catching Up on the Parler v. AWS Dispute
I blogged Parler’s unsuccessful request to get injunctive relief preventing AWS’s termination of Parler as a customer. Since then, Parler dismissed the federal court lawsuit, filed a state court lawsuit, AWS removed the second lawsuit to federal court, and the…
Section 230 Covers Republication of Old Yearbooks–Callahan v. Ancestry
Ancestry.com publishes 450,000 old yearbooks in the form of 730M records that contain, at least, “the person’s name, photograph, school name, yearbook year, and city or town (at the time of the yearbook).” Ancestry doesn’t disclose how it acquires the…
IP Lawsuits Against Print-on-Demand Vendors Continue to Vex the Courts–OSU v. Redbubble & More
[This post covers three recent print-on-demand cases. After the Ohio State writeup, keep reading for more fun and confusion.] Redbubble operates in the print-on-demand industry, but it’s adopted a different organizational structure than some of its competitors. Redbubble outsources manufacturing…
An Account Suspension Case Fails Again–Perez v. LinkedIn
Perez sued LinkedIn for suspending his account. In October, a court in Southern District of Texas dismissed the complaint because LinkedIn isn’t a state actor. The court gave Perez the opportunity to refile in the Northern District of California, which…
Section 230 Applies to Articles by Huffington Post Contributors–Page v. Oath
The plaintiff is Dr. Carter Page, who gained notoriety from his alleged role in Trump’s interactions with Russia, including multiple references in the Steele dossier. In 2017, he sued Oath (as owner of Yahoo and Huffington Post) for defamation over…
Section 230 Protects App Store from Liability for Apps With Loot Boxes–Coffee v. Google
Many video games have loot boxes, where players can exchange valuable consideration (like in-game currency purchased for cash) for a chance to win something really valuable to gameplay. Because loot boxes may involve chance, consideration, and prizes, loot boxes may…
Internet Law Year-in-Review for 2020
[I know 2020 feels like it was 100 years ago, but I’ve been busy in 2021 so far. I did year-end roundups of developments in Section 230 and emoji law.] My top Internet Law developments from 2020: 8. TSPA/TSF Launch….
Are Social Media Services “State Actors” or “Common Carriers”?
Yesterday, I did a videoconference with Prof. Eugene Volokh (UCLA Law) discussing if and how legislatures could regulate Internet services. Watch the video. Prof. Volokh and I usually agree on most things, but this time we may reach different conclusions….