The Texas Supreme Court ruled that federal law does not grant Facebook immunity against lawsuits for users who use its platform to lure minors into sex trafficking.
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"Facebook seeks writs of mandamus directing the dismissal of three lawsuits pending against it in district court," the court said.
"The plaintiffs in all three cases allege they were victims of sex trafficking who became entangled with their abusers through Facebook.
"They assert claims for negligence, negligent undertaking, gross negligence, and products liability based on Facebook’s alleged failure to warn of, or take adequate measures to prevent, sex trafficking on its internet platforms. They also assert claims under a Texas statute creating a civil cause of action against those who intentionally or knowingly benefit from participation in a sex-trafficking venture.
"The internet today looks nothing like it did in 1996, when Congress enacted section 230.
"The Constitution, however, entrusts to Congress, not the courts, the responsibility to decide whether and how to modernize outdated statutes. Perhaps advances in technology now allow online platforms to more easily police their users’ posts, such that the costs of subjecting platforms like Facebook to heightened liability for failing to protect users from each other would be outweighed by the benefits of such a reform.
"On the other hand, perhaps subjecting online platforms to greater liability for their users’ injurious activity would reduce freedom of speech on the internet by encouraging platforms to censor “dangerous” content to avoid lawsuits.
"Judges are poorly equipped to make such judgments, and even were it otherwise, “[i]t is for Congress, not this Court, to amend the statute if it believes” it to be outdated. Dodd v. United States, 545 U.S. 353, 359–60 (2005).
"The petition for writ of mandamus is denied in part and conditionally granted in part. The district courts are directed to dismiss Plaintiffs’ claims against Facebook for negligence, gross negligence, negligent undertaking, and products liability. Plaintiffs’ claims under section 98.002 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code may proceed. We are confident the district courts will
comply, and the writ will issue only if they do not." ■
A hyperactive weather pattern will bring an expansive low pressure system across mainland U.S., resulting in widespread impactful weather to progress from west to east across the country through the next few days.