|
||
|
First Amendment · Section 230 · AI Liability Nerdy Skynet! May 15, 2026 |
||
|
Coverage: 2026-05-12 through 2026-05-15 · 3 new developments this period |
||
|
||
|
Eric Goldman (Technology & Marketing Law Blog) |
||
|
TOS Formation Fails, and So Does Section 230–Judge v. Academia Eric Goldman (Technology & Marketing Law Blog) · 2026-05-13 CommentaryThis post analyzes a court decision in which Academia.edu failed to invoke Section 230 immunity for its "Mentions" email advertising service, which used professors' names and publication activity to solicit premium subscriptions. The court found that Academia materially contributed to the alleged unlawfulness by transforming user-generated citation data into commercial endorsements without consent, citing the Fraley v. Facebook "information content provider" doctrine and holding that §230 does not shield a platform that cloaks its own advertisements as user-created content. The post is significant for the newsletter because it applies the Roommates "material contribution" / ICP doctrine to a platform's monetization of user data, reinforcing that §230 immunity does not extend to a platform's own commercial messaging that appropriates third-party content. Key point: A platform loses §230 immunity when it transforms user-generated content into its own commercial advertising without consent, because doing so makes the platform at least a partial information content provider rather than a passive publisher of third-party speech. |
||
|
Tech Policy Press |
||
|
The State by State Push to Restrict Youth Access to Social Media Tech Policy Press · 2026-05-14 CommentaryThe piece surveys the ongoing wave of state legislation restricting minors' access to social media platforms, a regulatory movement that sits squarely within this newsletter's coverage of government attempts to regulate platform content moderation and access. State youth-access laws — requiring age verification, parental consent, or mandatory removal of minors — raise core First Amendment questions about compelled platform conduct, content-based restrictions on speaker categories, and the Moody v. NetChoice framework for evaluating speech burdens on platforms and their users. These laws also intersect with Section 230 to the extent they impose affirmative duties on platforms that may conflict with immunity from state-law obligations. Key point: The state-by-state push to restrict youth social media access represents one of the most active legislative frontiers for First Amendment challenges to platform regulation, implicating compelled speech, editorial discretion, and the constitutional limits on government-mandated age-gating of online expression. |
||
|
It’s Too Soon To Tell If the TAKE IT DOWN ACT Is Working Tech Policy Press · 2026-05-14 CommentaryThe TAKE IT DOWN Act, a federal law requiring platforms to remove non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) and AI-generated deepfakes thereof, raises significant First Amendment and Section 230 questions because it imposes mandatory takedown obligations on platforms within 48 hours of notice, potentially implicating compelled speech, overbroad removal incentives, and the interaction between the statute's requirements and existing §230 immunity frameworks. The post assesses early implementation of the law and whether platforms are actually complying with its removal mandates, which is directly relevant to this newsletter's coverage of government-mandated platform content moderation obligations and their constitutional dimensions. The TAKE IT DOWN Act sits at the intersection of compelled speech doctrine (Moody v. NetChoice), §230's interaction with federal criminal law carve-outs, and AI liability for deepfake-generated NCII. Key point: It is too early to evaluate whether the TAKE IT DOWN Act's mandatory removal regime is functioning as intended, but the law's obligations on platforms to act on user-generated and AI-generated NCII raise unresolved First Amendment and §230 questions that the newsletter tracks closely. |
||
|
Sources: CourtListener API ·
All 13 federal circuit RSS feeds ·
All 50 state supreme courts + intermediate appellate courts (8 states)
via Justia ·
Eric Goldman · Techdirt |