Intellectual Property Law

Facebook User Ban Vindicated

By Steve Cosentino

A California district judge recently upheld a user ban by Facebook against a user who violated facebook rules by friending people she did not know.  She was engaged in some outspoken commentary supportive of President Obama and increased her activity on Facebook in response to harrassment from other Facebook users. 

The plaintiff raised a number of interesting, but ultimatly unconvincing arguments against Facebook.  She tried to claim a First Amendment violation by arguing that Facebook was a state actor.  That argument focused on the fact that Facebook contracts with the government to permit Facebook pages for federal agencies.  She also argued that Facebook violated the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing.  The judge ruled in favor of Facebook's enforcement of its policies although it did perserve the suggestion that bad faith or arbitratrary termination could give rise to a claim.  According to Judge Fogel, the plaintiff instead argued that she was deprived of human interaction by Facebook.  Even Brown has a nice summary of all of her positions and the decision at Internet Cases. 

Many website operators weigh heavily the possibility of drawing a claim from a user when terminating an account or otherwise enforcing the Terms of Use.  This holding helps make that decision a little bit easier. 

Full post as published by The TechKnowledgy Blog on November 07, 2010 (boomark / email).