Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act lets social media platforms off the hook for content posted by users, but a college professor’s new lawsuit cites the law in his argument that he has the right to distribute software to users Meta deems to be a threat to its operations.
The software in question is called Unfollow Everything 2.0. Facebook users can download it and automatically unfollow everyone from their feed, allowing them to have more control over what they see online.
The software was first created by Louis Barclay in 2020 when he was trying to limit the amount of time he was spending on Facebook. However, Meta issued a cease-and-desist letter to Barclay alleging that he breached Facebook’s terms of service by “impairing the intended operation of Facebook.” Barclay removed the browser extension but said in an opinion piece for Slate in October 2021 that Facebook’s actions were “anti-consumer.”
“If lawmakers and regulators are serious about empowering users to stand up to big tech, they need to address the ways in which platforms stymie user choice, including through terms of service,” Barclay wrote. “Platforms shouldn’t be able to wield the threat of lawsuits and account suspensions against researchers and developers who create tools that merely empower users — but as my experience shows, they can and do.”
In comes Ethan Zuckerman, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who, nearly three years after Meta shut down Barclay’s software, filed a lawsuit against Meta. Zuckerman points to a clause in Section 230 that says it is permissible to restrict access to obscene and excessively violent content. This clause gives social media platforms a pass if they censor content deemed disturbing but lawyers argue the clause can be used to allow users to have more sovereignty over the kind of content they don’t want to see.
Meta is calling for the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to be dismissed.
“This suit is baseless, and was filed by the plaintiff over a hypothetical browser extension that he has not even built,” a company spokesman told the New York Times.
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A Russian cybersecurity company called Kaspersky used the same clause in Section 230 to defeat a 2007 lawsuit by a company accusing Kaspersky of creating malicious software.
Zuckerman is looking to level out Meta and other social media companies’ power from Section 230 by giving consumers the power to choose what is in their feeds.