Is it allowed to publish and use a Facebook plugin that removes all subscribers from the feed at once without being legally sued by Meta Group? That question remains unanswered for now after U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley temporarily dismissed the lawsuit in a declaratory judgment Thursday. The New York Times has given this news quoting court documents. Professor Ethan Zuckerman filed a lawsuit to ensure that Meta Group, the owner of social media platform Facebook, could not sue him if he brought to market a tool that would allow users to edit their feeds themselves.
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The matter has a history: several years ago, the British Louis Barclay came up with the idea of developing such a plug-in called Unfollow Everything. But in 2021, Meta Group threatened legal action if it was published, after which Barclay discontinued his project out of fear of consequences. But since late August, Professor Ethan Zuckerman, a communications researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has brought the topic back into focus and into a larger context: who actually has control over social media content, who determines what we put there. What do you see?
CDA in the interest of users?
In addressing this issue, Zuckerman is receiving support from the Knight First Amendment Institute, an organization that advocates for free speech. Zuckerman and Knight First Amendment Institute lawyers invoke Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and argue that the browser plug-in makes you the provider of an interactive computer service. This means that not only platform operators, but also users can intervene in news feeds to prevent the distribution of content deemed offensive or malicious. On this basis, Zuckerman and the lawyers wanted to establish that they would not be able to sue Meta if they developed and published such a tool. We described the connection in detail in the article Zuckerman vs. Zuckerberg: Rights Claimed by Facebook Plugins.
Meta filed an action against the declaratory judgment action and requested that it be dismissed in its entirety. Judge Corley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted the request. but he added According to the New York TimesThat Zuckerman could refile the lawsuit if such a device were available.
Ramya Krishnan, one of Zuckerman’s lawyers, said, “We are disappointed that the court believes that Professor Zuckerman will have to code the tool before the court can hear the case.” “We believe that Section 230 generally protects user empowerment tools and we expect the Court to commit to considering this argument at a later date.”
A Meta spokesperson cited an earlier statement from the company in which it called the lawsuit “meritless.”
(dz)
