By Guest Blogger Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s note: Prof. Ochoa previously posted a 900 word summary of the CASE Act. This post does a 5,500 word deep dive into the law for those who want the details.] On December 27, 2020,…

Planning to Sue Twitter Over an Account Suspension? YOU WILL LOSE--Murphy v. Twitter

Murphy engaged in deadnaming and misgendering in her tweets. Twitter repeatedly disciplined Murphy’s account until it finally permanently suspended the account. Murphy sued Twitter. The lower court ruled for Twitter on Section 230 grounds. The appeals court affirmed. This court…

Mirroring Qualifies for Section 230--Monsarrat v. Newman

This case involves a LiveJournal community (the Davis Square community for Somerville, MA). In 2017, LiveJournal changed its policies. In response, Newman, the community moderator, copied all of the community’s posts and uploaded them to Dreamwidth–an action we used to…

Lawyer Can't Sue Google for Bad Client Review--Lewis v. Google

Kerry Lewis is a lawyer. A putative client, “Lolo Mosby,” posted a zero-star rating and a negative review of him. I can’t find the review online, and the link in the court opinion no longer works. However, the complaint contains…

Court Rejects Parler’s Demand That Amazon Host Its Services

Parler, a self-described “conservative microblogging alternative and [competitor] to Twitter,” sued Amazon Web Services for suspending its service. Parler claimed (1) antitrust violations, (2) breach of contract, and (3) tortious interference. Parler sought a temporary restraining order (which the court…

Comments on the "Protecting Constitutional Rights from Online Platform Censorship Act"

A tsunami of new Section 230 reform bills is coming soon. The early previews suggest those bills will be just as terrible as the bills from the 116th Congress. This bill comes from Rep. DesJarlais (R-TN), who voted against certifying…

Some emoji law highlights from 2020: * My caselaw tally shows 132 cases referencing emojis or emoticons in 2020, a 25% increase from 2019. This year, I noticed that emojis are showing up in more murder cases–10 in 2020, compared…

by guest blogger Tyler Ochoa [Eric’s intro: The following is an excerpt from Joyce, Ochoa and Carroll, Copyright Law (2021 Supplement). In a future post, Prof. Ochoa will do a deep dive on the CASE Act for the geeks.] [C]…

When Can a Politician Block Constituents on Social Media?--Garnier v. O'Connor-Ratcliff

This case involves a school district near San Diego. The plaintiffs are parents of kids in the school district. The defendants, O’Connor-Ratcliff and Zane, are elected school board members. The defendants blocked the plaintiffs on social media. In light of…

This is a pro se lawsuit. Damner claims his Facebook account was hacked in April 2020 and the hacker(s) took it over. He notified Facebook but allegedly it never responded. Damner sued Facebook for Stored Communications Act claims and others….