The Supreme Court spent more than five hours over two days considering the responsibilities and failures of Big Tech, but in the end seemed reluctant to impose substantial changes in how social media platforms can be held liable for contentious or even dangerous content on their sites. Eric Schnapper, professor of law at the Â鶹ÉçÇø, is quoted.
“Could, under your theory, CNN have been sued for aiding and abetting the September 11th attacks?” he asked Eric Schnapper, a University of Washington law professor who represented the plaintiffs. Schnapper suggested that the interview alone wouldn’t meet all the conditions of JASTA’s text and added, without elaborating, that the First Amendment might protect it as well.
Looming over the case was Tuesday's hearing in Gonzalez v. Google on the scope of Section 230. Should the court reject the plaintiffs' argument that YouTube's recommendation-based algorithms are not covered by 230's immunity, the ATA claims underlying Twitter v. Taamneh will almost certainly fail given that the plaintiffs' attorney, University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law professor Eric Schnapper, said that both cases center around such recommendations by the companies.
Eric Schnapper, an attorney at the University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law representing the Gonzales family, told the justices this morning that it's true Google is not liable under Section 230 for content posted on Youtube. Where it should be liable, he said, is for the catalog of recommendations it creates with those videos.
A lawyer for the family of Nohemi Gonzalez argued Tuesday that Google, which owns YouTube, should be subject to a lawsuit because of its own actions. It was “encouraging people to look at ISIS videos,” said Eric Schnapper, a University of Washington law professor.
She even has a favorite law professor — University of Washington contracts professor Steve Calandrillo — who she’s shouted out on Insta.
But University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law Professor Eric Schnapper, who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs Tuesday, emphasized that, whatever the industry's fears might be, the text of Section 230 simply does not immunize companies like YouTube when it uses algorithmic tools to push dangerous content like ISIS videos to its users. The law simply bars courts from finding those sites liable as publishers of that content, he said. To extend the immunity to algorithms that push content to users, "the industry has to go back to Congress and ask, 'We need you to broaden the statute.'"
The lawyer for the Gonzalez family, University of Washington law professor Eric Schnapper, argued that recommendations provided by platforms like YouTube are essentially editorial choices — those platforms could have been designed such that they don’t surface or recommend harmful or defamatory content, but they were not.
Gonzalez family lawyer Eric Schnapper argued that applying Section 230 to algorithmic recommendations provides an incentive to promote harmful content; he urged the court to narrow those protections.
Eric Schnapper, a University of Washington law professor who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs, said Section 230 had been outpaced by technological developments since 1996.
Attorney conflict rules landed law professor Eric Schnapper a pair of blockbuster US Supreme Court social media cases that could limit the scope of tech company protections.
You probably haven't seen it, but it's almost certainly seen you. PimEyes.com is a website where you can upload a picture of your face and find wherever it appears online in any photo. Ryan Calo, professor of law at the Â鶹ÉçÇø, is quoted.
By contrast, just three lawyers signed the plaintiffs' brief, two of whom hail from smaller litigation boutiques. The third, University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law Professor Eric Schnapper, has no small amount of Supreme Court experience himself, having worked on more than 80 Supreme Court cases over the decades. Schnapper will argue for the plaintiffs on Tuesday, receiving a helping hand on Tuesday from Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart, who will argue on behalf of the government as amicus curiae.
“YouTube selected the users to whom it would recommend ISIS videos based on what YouTube knew about each of the millions of YouTube viewers, targeting users whose characteristics suggested they would be interested in ISIS videos,” Eric Schnapper, an attorney at the University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law representing the family, wrote in their brief.
Fundraising through PILG started 32 years ago as a modest endeavor organized by two UConn Law students: Andrew McDonald ’91, now a Connecticut Supreme Court justice, and Christine Cimini ’91, now a professor of law and associate dean for experiential education at the University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law.
Democrats in the Washington state legislature are trying again to make the state’s wealthiest residents pay up with a bill that would tax wealth surpassing $250 million. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame, would trigger a 1% tax on financial assets such as stocks and bonds, excluding the first $250 million. Hugh Spitzer, professor of law at the Â鶹ÉçÇø, is quoted.
The former dean of Washburn University School of Law who now is a professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, Pratt is also on the council of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. She and other founding members of the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project credit Tamara Lawson, who was the law dean at Florida St. Thomas University and is now the dean of the University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law, with planning the Crump naming rights.
Opposition to a proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons took a new turn last week after two dozen consumers, including a Kirkland man, filed the first formal challenge to the $25 billion deal. The lawsuit, filed Feb. 2 in a California federal court, also seeks to halt a controversial $4 billion dividend by Albertsons to shareholders in the run-up to the merger. Douglas Ross, professor of law at the Â鶹ÉçÇø, is quoted.
Professor Jennifer Fan's work is cited.
Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Washington, David Owens, began the Teach-In by focusing on the renewed presence of activism that gained traction in 2020 after the death of George Floyd as well as the optimistic results of protests nationwide
The amicus brief was filed by Professor Whiteman Runs Him; Professor Monte Mills, Native American Law Center at the University of Â鶹ÉçÇø of Law; Professor Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely, University of Idaho College of Law; and John Echohawk, Steven C. Moore, David L. Gover, Ada Montague Stepleton, Joe Tenorio, Morgan E. Saunders, Wesley James Furlong, and Sydney Tarzwell at the Native American Rights Fund.
“I don’t think there are lots of big health care mergers waiting to happen,” said Douglas Ross, a University of Washington law professor who maintains the bill’s provisions are onerous and unnecessary.
Liberty Lake politicians this month could change city law to reduce the authority of the library board, a five-member group of appointed volunteers that sets policy and has the final say over which books belong on the shelves. Hugh Spitzer, professor of law at the Â鶹ÉçÇø, is quoted.
Part of what courts do when deciding matters of fair use is to weigh the potential harms of a new way of using content against its benefits, says Inyoung Cheong, a legal scholar at the University of Washington. It could take years for all of the cases against generative-AI companies to conclude, she adds.
A conservative legal advocacy organization is suing to halt the nearly $17 billion transportation funding bill passed by the Washington Legislature and signed by Gov. Jay Inslee last year. The organization, the Citizen Action Defense Fund, argued in a filing Tuesday that the 16-year transportation revenue package contains multiple subjects that lack “rational unity,” and because of that, it violates the state constitution. Hugh Spitzer, professor of law at the Â鶹ÉçÇø, is referenced.
