EP 133 | Lawsuit Aims at New Target To Change Big Tech Section 230 Protections

In 2010 Jason Fyk ventured into the business world of social media. Realizing the advertising potential of the platform, Fyk created a series of popular pages on Facebook which regularly published content related to pop culture and comedy. At the height of Fyk’s success, his pages held over 38 million followers and brought in over $300,000 per month from brand partnerships and advertising. In 2016 Facebook pulled the plug on his pages and refused to restore them. Fyk eventually took facebook to court and the Social Media Freedom Foundation non-profit organization was founded for the sole purpose of protecting freedom of expression online. Unfortunately, the California Courts have consistently failed to apply and/or resolve the textual interpretation issues surrounding section 230. The courts denied Fyk Due Process. His case was dismissed under section 230(c)(1). But, he now has the standing to sue the government itself. In other words, Fyk had to lose his lawsuit in order to gain the standing to pursue the United States Government over section 230’s Constitutionality because the statute (section 230) provided immunity to private persons (Facebook) when they “arbitrarily” restricted his liberty and property under “protection” of law. There are fundamental principles in administrative law that an agency must conform to, but in the case of section 230, they do not. Jason Fyk is my guest this week and we’re excited to hear about the possibility of success with this new approach!