Zuckerman v. Meta Platforms, Inc.
A case arguing that Section 230 protects tools that empower people
to control what they see on social media.
https://knightcolumbia.org/cases/zuckerman-v-meta-platforms-inc
On May 1, 2024, the Knight Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ethan
Zuckerman—a professor of public policy, communication, and information
at the University of Massachusetts Amherst—asking the court to recognize
that Section 230 protects the development of tools that empower social
media users to control what they see online.
Professor Zuckerman would like to release a tool called Unfollow
Everything 2.0, a browser extension that would allow Facebook users to
automatically unfollow their friends, groups, and pages, and, in doing
so, to effectively turn off their newsfeeds, which Facebook
algorithmically sorts to drive user engagement. The tool would also
enable people to donate their data to an academic research study that
explores how this increased control affects user behavior and
well-being. Zuckerman hasn’t released the tool, however, out of fear
that Meta will sue him if he does so, as it threatened to do when a
U.K.-based developer released a similar tool called Unfollow Everything.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare that Section 230 immunizes
Zuckerman from civil liability for releasing Unfollow Everything 2.0. In
the alternative, it asks the court to declare that the tool does not
violate Meta’s Terms of Service, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or
California’s Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.
*Status: *Complaint filed on May 1, 2024.
*Case Information: */Zuckerman v. Meta Platforms/, No. 3:24-cv-02596
(N.D. Cal.)*/
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*/PRESS STATEMENT:
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/new-lawsuit-seeks-to-wrestle-control-of-newsfeed-from-meta-for-facebook-users
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