@RonWyden You and I agree consumers should be back in the driver's seat! The problem we're seeing, Senator Wyden, is that some of these tech products are dangerous to consumers. Like Grindr, a product with geolocating technology saying it lacked the technology to exclude abusive users.
@RonWyden When @MatthewSHerrick sued, it wasn't to moderate content. It was because 23 strangers were visiting him! IRL. A day. Many were crazed drugged tweekers who thought he'd invited them over to fulfill rape fantasies. And Matt wasn't even a Grindr user!
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick He'd gotten his order of protection. He'd reported it to the cops 10x times. DANY wasn't doing squat b/c guess what, Grindr wasn't responding to their warrants they told us. It was a real crisis. It wasn't like Zaran where 9 months later the victim decides to sue AOL.
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick It was a crisis NOW. And Grindr was in the exclusive role to help. So long as the government has a monopoly on prosecutions, there was nothing Matthew could do to get the DA to arrest the abusive user. Suing that guy was no option. He was dangerous and deranged.
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick And in my experience as a lawyer for victims who are being stalked, judgment-proof people who are not afraid of criminal law, sure as hell aren't going to be stopped by tort law. So really, Grindr was our hope.
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick And we didn't sue Grindr for the offender's third party content. We sued for injunctive relief and then for their defectively designed product and other product liability and consumer torts.
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick Correction: we didn't sue Grindr for the offender's content.
So what is the plan, to put consumers in the drivers seat when the problem isn't with specific content, but it's with negligent and defective product design?
So what is the plan, to put consumers in the drivers seat when the problem isn't with specific content, but it's with negligent and defective product design?
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick So many people see this as an issue about free speech and content moderation. But Section 230 has been applied so broadly it extends into consumer protections and gives tech companies a pass when it comes to product liability.
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick I know there's this perception that all of us money-grubbing tort lawyers are waiting for the CDA to fall so that we can sue, but like, we still have to show causation and damages. We still have frickin Iqbal and Twombly. We still have the outrageous costs of litigating
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick against multi-billion dollar defendants. There's a barrier to entry for not serious claims. The rest of the world just buys liability insurance. Don't these companies already have that for the random pro se litigants who don't even know about CDA 230?
@RonWyden @MatthewSHerrick Anyway, I'm glad you agree about consumers needing to be in the driver's seat. I want people to be able to call one another bitch on twitter as much as the next person. It's not about content moderation.
