Ethan Zuckerman sues to stop Meta from blocking his planned Unfollow Everything 2.0 extension that would let Facebook users tune or even turn off their Feed
Academic Ethan Zuckerman is suing Meta to win protections for add-ons that help researchers study the platform and give users more control over their feeds.
Wired Vittoria Elliott
Related Coverage
- Zuckerman v. Meta Platforms, Inc. Knight First Amendment Institute
- Unfollow Everything lawsuit could change the way we use social media apps 9to5Mac · Ben Lovejoy
- A new lawsuit aims to change the Facebook news feed Android Headlines · Arthur Brown
- New Lawsuit Seeks to Wrestle Control of Newsfeed from Meta for Facebook Users Knight First Amendment Institute
- A researcher is suing Meta for the right to ‘turn off’ Facebook's news feed Engadget · Karissa Bell
- Meta sued by professor who wants to release ‘Unfollow Everything 2.0’ tool Courthouse News Service · Edvard Pettersson
- Lawsuit Challenges Meta: Can Users Control Their Facebook Feeds? Oneindia · Sathish Raman
- Lawsuit against Meta asks if Facebook users have right to control their feeds using external tools Associated Press · Barbara Ortutay
- With my brilliant friends at the Knight First Amendment Institute, I filed suit against Meta today, asking a federal court to find that CDA section 230 gives users rights to control what they see on social media via third party tools. See our complaint at: https://knightcolumbia.org/... . … @ethanz@octodon.social · Ethan Zuckerman
Discussion
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@eff@mastodon.social
@eff@mastodon.social
on mastodon
There's a lot of case law on Section 230's limitation of platforms' liability for content posted by users, but not much on whether a subsection protects creators of tools that let users control how they access the internet, EFF's Sophia Cope told @WIRED. https://www.wired.com/...
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@louisbarclay
Louis Barclay
on x
Unfollow Everything is dead! Long live Unfollow Everything 2.0! I'm absolutely over the moon at the news of this lawsuit by @EthanZ 🍾 https://www.wired.com/...
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@daphnehk
Daphne Keller
on x
This suit against Meta by @EthanZ w counsel from @knightcolumbia has everything. Section 230 interpretive fights galore, all on behalf of middleware providers, and with implications for researchers. And copyright and DMCA 1201 claims waiting in the wings! https://www.wired.com/..…
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@bengrosser
Ben Grosser
on x
Facebook has come after me for my Demetricators multiple times. Glad to see this lawsuit by @ethanz. The browser is the domain of the user, not the platform.
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@louisbarclay
Louis Barclay
on x
2021: Meta ban me for life for making Unfollow Everything 2024: @EthanZ launches Unfollow Everything 2.0 lawsuit That's just...nice
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@joshconstine
Josh Constine
on x
I do think social networks should allow browser extensions for customization... ...but lol, @EthanZuckerman's Unfollow Everything won't “turn off” the algorithm. It'd just give Fb unlimited power to recommend random viral crap with no friends in the way https://www.wired.com/...
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@daphnehk
Daphne Keller
on x
@EthanZ @knightcolumbia It made me so sad and nostalgic for the days when I covered all of this in my class (and practice)! Now I am not even fully up to date on CFAA and 1201 pieces, sigh.
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@ethanz
Ethan Zuckerman
on x
With my brilliant friends at @knightcolumbia , I filed suit against Meta today, asking a federal court to find that CDA section 230 gives users rights to control what they see on social media via third party tools. See our complaint at [Link]
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@daphnehk
Daphne Keller
on x
I'm in a lot of little fragmented conversations about this case against Meta (which I like to think of as Zuckerman v. Zuckerberg or ZvZ though that isn't the real caption). So here is a brain dump. Corrections welcome, especially from @EthanZ or @knightcolumbia. 1/
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@eff
@eff
on x
There's a lot of case law on Section 230's limitation of platforms' liability for content posted by users, but not much on whether a subsection protects creators of tools that let users control how they access the internet, EFF's @scopesetic told @WIRED. https://www.wired.com/...
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@drleighmjohnson
Dr. Leigh M. Johnson
on x
Really interested to see where this goes... https://www.wired.com/...
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@zephyrteachout
Zephyr Teachout
on x
Brilliant lawsuit.
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@rao_hacker_one
Arun Rao
on x
@daphnehk ... Surprised that Knight got involved - seems like a fringe lawsuit with very shaky theories. I guess if Columbia is going to destroy its brand (eg US News ratings drops, standardized score optional, violent pro-Hamas student protests), you can add filing fringe tech l…
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@telliotter
Tori Elliott
on x
For years platforms have used 230 to protect themselves from legal liability for user generated content. Now, new lawsuit from @knightcolumbia says the law has another application: letting users control their feeds. @WIRED https://www.wired.com/...
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@daphnehk
Daphne Keller
on x
@rao_hacker_one ... Figuring out what the legal barriers are (and aren't) for the basic mechanics of things like scraping or automated tools for users to set preferences is, IMO, really important.
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@moonalice
Roger McNamee
on x
.@EthanZ is my hero. Every case against surveillance capitalists gets us closer to banning the business model. Platforms assert that 1A and 230 entitle them to knowingly harm their users for profit. Eventually a judge will see this as total BS and rule against the platforms.
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@ifatgazia
@ifatgazia
on x
This is huge. @EthanZ is not gonna rest until he fixes social media for all of us. So proud of you Ethan 🙌
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@christophbusch
Christoph Busch
on x
Super interesting: Zuckerman v Meta is part of the global movement from algorithmic transparency towards algorithmic choice. In this book chapter I explored how algorithmic choice could be achieved in the EU under the DMA: https://link.springer.com/...
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@juliaangwin
Julia Angwin
on x
Thank you for this pioneering lawsuit @EthanZ! Our relationship with social media would be so much better if we could break the platforms' stranglehold on the algorithms. My piece on the need for algorithmic choice: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://www.wired.com/...
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r/technology
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A Lawsuit Argues Meta Is Required by Law to Let You Control Your Own Feed
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r/privacy
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A Lawsuit Argues Meta Is Required by Law to Let You Control Your Own Feed
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r/business
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A Lawsuit Argues Meta Is Required by Law to Let You Control Your Own Feed