This lawsuit pertains to an episode of the TV present Evil Lives Here called “I Invited Him In,” which discusses an NY serial killer named Nathaniel White. A special Nathaniel White claimed that the episode improperly featured his mugshot and thus linked him to the serial killings. Amongst different defendants, he sued Microsoft for Bing search outcomes linking to the episode. Microsoft defended on Part 230 grounds.
The courtroom agrees with Microsoft. “The individuals who posted the data on the eight URLs supplied by Mr. White had been the ‘info content material suppliers’ and Microsoft was the ‘interactive service supplier.’…the trial courtroom was appropriate to grant abstract judgment discovering Microsoft immune from Mr. White’s defamation declare by operation of Part 230 since Microsoft didn’t publish any defamatory assertion.” Cites to Marshall Locksmith v. Google, In re Facebook, and Baldino’s Lock v. Google.
A batshit loopy concurrence questions “part 230(c)(1)’s constitutionality as utilized to state defamation legislation” as a result of the Structure’s Commerce Clause energy could not convey “the facility to nationalize state widespread legislation defamation actions….The web, and associated e-commerce, can actually be interstate in nature. However the commerce clause was not meant to nationalize the entire of America legislation.” If it issues, the concurring decide is a DeSantis appointee.
I’ve stopped monitoring all the occasions Part 230 has immunized search outcomes. Right here’s an incomplete checklist:
Maughan v. Google Expertise, Inc., 143 Cal. App. 4th 1242 (Cal. App. Ct. 2006); Murawski v. Pataki, 514 F. Supp. second 577 (S.D.N.Y. 2007); Shah v. MyLife.Com, Inc., 2012 WL 4863696 (D. Or. 2012); Merritt v. Lexis Nexis, 2012 WL 6725882 (E.D. Mich. 2012); Nieman v. Versuslaw, Inc., 2012 WL 3201931 (C.D. Ailing. 2012); Getachew v. Google, Inc., 491 Fed. Appx. 923 (tenth Cir. 2012); Mmubango v. Google, Inc., 2013 WL 664231 (E.D. Pa. 2013); O’Kroley v. Fastcase Inc., 831 F.3d 352 (sixth Cir. 2016); Fakhrian v. Google Inc., 2016 WL 1650705 (Cal. App. Ct. 2016); Despot v. Baltimore Life Insurance coverage Co., 2016 WL 4148085 (W.D. Pa. 2016); Manchanda v. Google, Inc., 2016 WL 6806250 (S.D.N.Y. 2016); Mosha v. Yandex Inc., 2019 WL 5595037 (S.D.N.Y. 2019).
Add this case to the checklist.
Case quotation: White v. Discovery Communications LLC, 2023 WL 3335417 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Could 10, 2023)