A Houston area woman has sued Facebook asking for $123 million because Facebook was slow to take down a fake a profile created by her ex-boyfriend with pornographic images.
You can see the video here.
The plaintiff sued Facebook and the ex-boyfriend for negligence, breach of contract, gross negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and defamation. The request for $123 million is based on $.10 for every Facebook user. You can read the amended petition here–Ali v. Facebook petition.
My guess is this case will likely be removed to federal court (both defendants are out of state) and then summarily dismissed as to Facebook. As regular readers should know by now, website operators like Facebook are not liable for the content created by others under the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It provides that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” This federal law preempts any state laws to the contrary: “[n]o cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section.”
Although sympathetic to the plight of the plaintiff, Section 230 unquestionably (and may result in sanctions against the plaintiff) immunizes Facebook from the negligence, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation claims.
It appears the plaintiff is heavily relying upon the fact it took Facebook a long time to take the fake profile down. Facebook’s community guidelines do prohibit fake profiles. Facebook says it will take down posts and profiles in violation of the guidelines, but it never contractually commits to the users it will quickly police the site. In fact, Facebook expressly says it will not guarantee an expedient removal stating:
If you see something on Facebook that you believe violates our terms, you should report it to us. Please keep in mind that reporting a piece of content does not guarantee that it will be removed from the site.
It is therefore questionable whether there is any contractual obligation on Facebook to take down offensive or fake profiles. Regardless, most courts do not allow plaintiffs to artfully plead around the Communications Decency Act and have poured out similar breach of contract claims.
We will keep an eye on this case. You can listen to my interview with KRLD Radio in Dallas about the case here. facebook lawsuit with Mitch Carr – KRLD.
