Defendants Meta, Google, Snap and ByteDance “intentionally design” their social media platforms to entice “still developing minors” into spending “ever increasing amounts of time on their platforms,” alleged the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, district attorney in a Wednesday complaint (docket 3:23-cv-01283) on behalf of the county and commonwealth in U.S. District Court for Middle Pennsylvania in Scranton.
“YouTube applies its Community Guidelines independently, transparently, and consistently, regardless of political viewpoint," emailed Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda Thursday, responding to a freedom of speech lawsuit (docket 3:23-cv-03880) filed Wednesday by Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Kennedy's claims are "meritless and we look forward to refuting them," Castaneda said.
Plaintiff Jerome Edmondson, CEO of EDN Global, attempted to avoid written contracts with AT&T when he tried to “plead around” them “by omitting a breach claim and instead asserting a host of tort claims,” said AT&T Tuesday in its memorandum in support (docket 3:23-cv-00355) of its motion to dismiss Edmondson and EDN's amended complaint for failure to state a claim.
Activision Blizzard “lacks sufficient information to admit or deny” that plaintiff Sorina Montoya spent over $3,000 in a Candy Crush tournament -- and so therefore “denies it” -- said the video game company in a Tuesday answer (docket 3:23-cv-00314) to Montoya’s fraud class action in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia in Richmond.
Plaintiff Tracy McCarthy’s fraud claims against Amazon and its Audible subsidiary for deceptive practices under New York General Business Law (GBL) are time-barred and “duplicative,” said Amazon’s motion to dismiss (docket 2:23-cv-01019) the first amended complaint (FAC) Monday in U.S. District Court for Washington in Seattle.
CEO Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) spared few punches Tuesday in attacking Elon Musk, owner of the X platform, formerly Twitter, a day after the platform sued his group for allegedly running a "scare campaign" to drive away advertisers. Musk’s "latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook," emailed Ahmed.
GlobalguruTech’s (GGT) July 14 motion to quash Xfinity Mobile’s subpoenas to payment service companies is improper because defendants don’t have standing to object to the wireless carrier’s subpoenas since they're directed to third parties, not to the defendants, said Xfinity’s Thursday response (docket 2:22-cv-01950) in U.S. District Court for Arizona in Phoenix. Also, a motion to quash must be filed in the place where compliance is required, which is the Northern District of Georgia, not the district of Arizona, it said.
Dynatrace is "aware" of the privacy class action filed against the company Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Boston (see 2307270025), "and believes it is without merit,” emailed a spokesperson Friday. Dynatrace “at this time" intends to "vigorously defend itself against these allegations,” said the spokesperson. Plaintiffs Alyssa Gary and Marla Defoort allege in their class action that Dynatrace's session replay spyware “wiretaps” the electronic communications of “thousands” of website visitors, secretly observing and recording their “keystrokes, mouse clicks, data entry, and other electronic communications, in real time.” The plaintiffs allege Dynatrace software intercepted their interactions with the Ulta Beauty website in December without their consent.
Verizon was “grossly reckless and negligent” in allowing a third-party criminal to access plaintiff Christopher Ayeni’s cellphone and steal more than $215,000 from his bank accounts, alleged Ayeni's complaint (docket 2:23-cv-00618), removed July 24 by defendants Verizon and Bank of America to U.S. District Court for New Mexico in Las Cruces from the 5th Judicial District Court, Eddy County, New Mexico. Verizon “failed to follow reasonable procedures” to prevent criminals from hacking Ayeni’s device and account data “when criminals apparently visited a Verizon location and sought to ‘hack’ into” his account and phone, said the complaint.
The U.S. District Court for Eastern New York should remand a negligence lawsuit to Suffolk County Supreme Court, recommended U.S. Magistrate Judge James Wicks in a Thursday report (docket 2:23-cv-02786), submitted as supplemental information by the Social Media Victims Law Center before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.