Another Failed Lawsuit Over Trump's Deplatforming--Rutenberg v. Twitter

Rutenberg sued Twitter for deplatforming Trump because it deprived her of reading material she wanted. (In drafting this post, I tried to come up with a joke based on the prior sentence, but it’s already peak humor without any embellishment)….

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…

Messaging Apps Raise Tricky E-Discovery Issues (Guest Blog Post)

by guest blogger Philip Favro Several recent court cases spotlight the challenges that messaging apps present in litigation. In particular, these cases show that messaging apps—whose features may cause message content to either be kept or deleted—have an outsized impact…

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:…

Minnesota Wants to Ban Under-18s From User-Generated Content Services

As part of an omnibus bill, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed a troubling bill restricting how under-18 users engage with user-generated content (UGC) services. [At the bottom of this post, I’ve included the text as passed by the Minnesota…

Court Explains How Smileys Are "Prone to Multiple Interpretations"--In re State

This case involves a real estate dispute that’s been in the courts for almost 30 years. (Any case tied up in the courts that long is bound to have lots of drama associated with it and usually has gone well…

COVID Skeptics' Anti-Jawboning Lawsuit Fails--Changizi v. Department of HHS

Yet another COVID denier lawsuit over getting kicked off social media. These cases seem endless. On the plus side, these plaintiffs didn’t sue Twitter for deplatforming them. Instead, they directed their fire solely at the Department of Health and Human…

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…