Suit Against Meta, Using a Tech Shield Law, Is Dismissed

Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted Meta’s request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Ethan Zuckerman, who teaches public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who wants to build a tool that allows Facebook users to unfollow everyone in their feed. Prof Zuckerman (no relation) had asked a federal court to rule that Meta, Facebook’s owner, couldn’t sue him if he went through with his plan. Zuckerman and his lawyers, who work at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, were relying on a little-used portion of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that shields Meta and other tech giants from lawsuits over content posted by their users. Judge Corley ruled that Zuckerman could refile the lawsuit at a later date.