maria cristina armenta – Techdirt (original) (raw)

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Antisemitic Conspiracy Theorist Who Sued YouTube For 1st Amendment Violations Now Owes YouTube Nearly $40,000

from the oh-THOSE-conservative-views dept

The people who claim to be confused about social media services and the First Amendment are never truly confused. It’s always the people you expect to claim they’re “confused.”

Most social media users understand they’re playing on someone else’s playground. They know that if they act like inveterate assholes, the social media company will repeatedly tap the “no assholes allowed” sign before deactivating their accounts.

It’s always the most inveterate of assholes that pretend to be confused about how social media services work and where the intersection of their right to free speech collides violently with their misconceptions about a supposed “right to be heard.” The latter right does not exist. And a social media company can’t violate your constitutional rights no matter how hard it tries.

So, when people start suing social media platforms for violating their rights, it’s ALWAYS these kinds of people, as discussed in this Section 230 post by Techdirt reader/contributor Joe Mullin a couple of years ago:

Marshall Daniels hosts a YouTube channel in which he has stated that Judaism is “a complete lie_“ which was “_made up for political gain.” Daniels, who broadcasts as “Young Pharaoh,” has also called Black Lives Matter “an undercover LGBTQ Marxism psyop that is funded by George Soros.”

_In April 2020, Daniels live-streamed a video claiming that vaccines contain “rat brains,” that HIV is a “biologically engineered, terroristic weapon,” and that Anthony Fauci “has been murdering motherfuckers and causing medical illnesses since the 1980s._“

_In May 2020, Daniels live-streamed a video called “George Floyd, Riots & Anonymous Exposed as Deep State Psyop for NOW.” In that video, he claimed that nationwide protests over George Floyd’s murder were “the result of an operation to cause civil unrest, unleash chaos, and turn the public against [President Trump].” According to YouTube, he also stated the COVID-19 pandemic and Floyd’s murder “were covert operations orchestrated by the Freemasons,” and accused Hillary Clinton and her aide John Podesta of torturing children. Near the video’s end, Daniels stated: “If I catch you talking shit about Trump, I might whoop your ass fast._“

Yeah. That’s the stuff. Just mainlining 8chan and hoping at some point to have your personal shit together enough to be considered a respectable sociopath. These are people who somehow consistently fail to understand terms of service policies and their implicit promise to behave themselves when hanging out in other people’s spaces.

Daniels sued YouTube in 2021, claiming (despite all evidence to the contrary) that the company was a “state actor” because some politicians said something out loud about content moderation (namely Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff). He was represented by a couple of opportunistic lawyers who like suing YouTube for contradictory reasons when not representing the sort of people who shouldn’t be allowed within 100 feet of an open internet portal. Here’s Eric Goldman discussing Young Pharoah’s legal reps:

Personnel note: the plaintiff’s lawyers are Maria Cristina Armenta and Credence Elizabeth Sol, and this isn’t their first appearance on the blog. They will always hold special status in Internet Law for their ultimately-unsuccessful censorial efforts to force YouTube to remove the Innocence of Muslims video. Now, they are working–again unsuccessfully–to impose censorial must-carry obligations on Internet services.

In the most likely turn of events, Pharoah/Daniels has lost his lawsuit against YouTube. Not only has he lost, but if he has any money to spare, he’s out that as well. Here’s Eric Goldman again:

Google requested attorneys’ fees for its [Section] 1983 victory. 1983 allows for fee-shifting in “exceptional” cases, including frivolous cases like this one. The court says it was “frivolous from the outset….Mr. Daniels purported to assert a First Amendment claim against private entities based on legal theories that were either expressly foreclosed by existing precedent or entirely meritless on their own terms.” The court awards YouTube a fee-shift of $38,576. Boom.

Yep, that’s Section 1983, the one that allows lawsuits against government employees for rights violations. YouTube/Alphabet is not a government employee, so bringing this action under this legal code means YouTube can now take Mr. Daniels’ money, rather than the other way around.

As Goldman notes, it’s one thing for a court to call a lawsuit brought by a pro se complainant frivolous. They’re not expected to be intimately familiar with applicable laws. It’s quite another (and much more insulting) for a court to use the words “frivolous from the outset” to describe something authored by practicing attorneys.

It’s a loss. And no one should have ever expected this to end any differently. But this is what happens when a performative plaintiff pairs with performative lawyers: courts get annoyed and the people who thought they’d band together to take down… um… the… social media… uh… Deep State… I guess… are now on the hook for nearly forty grand.

Anyway, if you want to read something stupid, here’s the original complaint [PDF]. And if you want to see all of its stupidity pointed out pointedly, here’s the federal court opinion [PDF].

Private companies are not the government, no matter how often government employees might bitch about private companies. That YouTube doesn’t want your bigoted, dumbass content is wholly on you, Young Pharaoh. There’s no legal action here. Just an opportunity for you to understand where you’ve gone wrong. But it’s apparently going to be a very expensive learning experience.

Filed Under: attorney's fees, content moderation, credence elizabeth sol, maria cristina armenta, marshall daniels, section 1983, section 230, state actor, young pharoah
Companies: google, youtube