What’s next after social media verdicts?

05:00 |

The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. Jury verdicts against Meta and Google could tee up a fight over a tech liability shield. Plus, Georgia's Fulton County will seek the return of 2020 ballots seized by the FBI; the federal judiciary proposed a $9.7 billion budget with more cash for U.S. Supreme Court security; and Lawyers in Trump cases are seeking to recoup fees under an equal justice law. Lord of the Rings superfan Stephen Colbert will co-write the franchise's next film. That's precious.

U.S. jury verdicts against Meta, Google tee up fight over tech liability shield

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Jurors in the first two trials in the U.S. from a growing wave of lawsuits targeting social media firms over harm to children have found Meta and Google liable, potentially teeing up an appeals fight that could reshape how U.S. law shields tech companies from lawsuits.

The verdicts pierce a legal shield that plaintiffs suing tech companies have long struggled to overcome: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 federal law that generally protects online platforms from liability over user-generated content. In both cases, the plaintiffs sidestepped that hurdle by arguing the companies harmed young users through decisions they made ⁠about the platforms' design rather than the content itself. Diana Novak Jones has more analysis here.

And here's a look at how the cases could be an early test of how courts may handle similar claims going forward.

Plus, New Mexico lays out options to force changes at Meta after its win.

Coming up today

Election: Lawyers for Fulton County, Georgia, are expected to question witnesses as they seek to persuade a federal judge that the FBI's seizure of 2020 election ballots was unlawful.
Environment: U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in D.C. will hold a motion hearing in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity that seeks to stop Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum from convening the Endangered Species Committee on March 31. Burgum wants the committee to approve the extinction of the extremely endangered Rice's whale, as well as drop certain National Marine Fisheries Service requirements for the oil and gas industry that protect endangered sea turtles and sperm whales. Read the complaint.
Epstein: Lawyers for Bank of America and the women who accused the bank of facilitating their sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein are due to reveal more details of their lawsuit settlement in court filings due today.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

A law that benefits plaintiffs in some cases against the federal government could take on new prominence as lawsuits against the Trump administration begin reaching their conclusions and prevailing lawyers seek taxpayer-funded fees. Read more in this week's Billable Hours.
Apollo Capital Management, BlackRock Financial Management and six other major asset managers have denied pressuring law firm Kirkland & Ellis to drop Optimum Communications as a client in retaliation for a lawsuit that accused them of colluding to block Optimum from refinancing billions of dollars in debt. Read the filing.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in D.C. tossed discrimination and breach of contract claims brought against Howard University Law School by a white law student who was expelled from the historically Black institution in 2022.

"The right that's implicated, paramount over other rights, is the right to constitutional counsel."

—U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, questioning the U.S. government's justification for blocking ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro from using the South American country's funds to pay for his legal defense against U.S. drug trafficking charges. However, Hellerstein said ‌he would not dismiss the case against Maduro on that basis. Read more here.

$25.4 million

That's how much extra funding the U.S. Supreme Court is asking for to boost both physical and cyber security for the court, including by expanding protective services for the nine justices' residences and their families. Read the budget request here.

In the courts

Investor: Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Elon Musk, urged a federal judge in San Francisco to review a recent jury verdict finding that Musk defrauded Twitter investors when buying the social media company, saying jurors improperly used the verdict to "send a message" by finding him liable.
IP: Meta, Nvidia and Roblox were hit with proposed class-action lawsuits in California federal court from a digital artist who alleged that the companies misused millions of 3D models to train generative AI systems. Read the complaints.
Antitrust: U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle in Dallas dismissed ‌X Corp's antitrust lawsuit that accused the World Federation of Advertisers and ⁠a group of major companies including Mars, CVS Health and Colgate-Palmolive of illegally boycotting billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's social ‌media ⁠company. Read the decision.
IP: Sony Music reached a settlement in its lawsuit that accused the University of Southern California of featuring more than 170 of its songs without permission in videos promoting the school's athletics program. Read the filing.
Consumer: Food Animal Concerns Trust, a food safety and animal welfare nonprofit, filed suit against Panera Bread based on Reuters reporting, claiming the company misled ‌consumers about Panera's meat products.
Defamation: Unilever and its recently spun off Magnum ice ‌cream unit were sued for defamation by Anuradha Mittal, who was ⁠ousted in December as chair of Ben & Jerry's independent board.

Attorney Analysis

Davis+Gilbert's Joseph Cioffi and Nicole Zatserkovniy look at how "pig butchering" schemes have become an emerging risk for financial institutions. Read today's Attorney Analysis.

Additional writing by Shruthi Krishnamurthy.

Contact

Caitlin Tremblay

caitlin.tremblay@thomsonreuters.com

Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website

The Daily Docket is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.

Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here.

This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you’ve engaged with its contents. For more information on how we process your personal information and your rights, please see our Privacy Statement.

Terms & Conditions