Willenken Prevails in Section 230 Case for Prominent Social Media Company

Willenken recently achieved an outstanding victory on behalf of a leading social media company, in a case where the plaintiff challenged the company’s decision to suspend his user account and its moderation decisions about content posted by another user. The legal team was led by partner Kenneth Trujillo-Jamison and included partner Eileen Ahern and associate Kirby Hsu.

In this case, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California held that all of the plaintiff’s claims were barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally provides social media companies with immunity from liability for their moderation decisions about user-generated content. The Court also held that the plaintiff failed to state plausible claims, and that amendment would be futile. Accordingly, the Court entered judgment in favor of Willenken’s client.

This result came after the Willenken team in June 2023 also defeated a temporary restraining order (TRO) also sought by the plaintiff.