From M.H. v. Omegle.com LLC, decided yesterday by the Eleventh Circuit (Judges Andrew Brasher and Ed Carnes, joined as to the sex trafficking claim by Judge Barbara Lagoa):
The facts of this appeal underscore that the internet in general and social media in particular pose grave risks to children. When C.H. was eleven years old, a stranger connected with her through Omegle.com, an online social media platform that places people in video chatrooms. The stranger then tricked and threatened C.H. into making child pornography. Unfortunately, this problem is not unique to Omegle.com. Our precedents reflect that child predators use many other online platforms to find and exploit their victims.
Through her parents, C.H. sued Omegle.com LLC. She alleged that Omegle.com violated 18 U.S.C. § 2255, known as "Masha's Law," by knowingly possessing child pornography. She also sued Omegle.com for violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which forbids knowingly benefitting from participation in a sex trafficking venture. The district court dismissed her claims under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. That section provides that for purposes of civil liability, "[n]o provider … of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by" a user.
C.H.'s appeal presents two questions of statutory interpretation. First, we must decide whether she stated a claim under Masha's Law for the knowing possession of child pornography. We conclude that she has not. Second, we must decide whether C.H. can bring her sex trafficking claim because of an exception to section 230 under the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act ("FOSTA"). We believe she cannot. The FOSTA exception applies only to conduct that meets the standard for criminal liability for sex trafficking. Here, C.H. does not plausibly allege that Omegle.com had actual knowledge that it benefited from sex trafficking, which is the standard for criminal liability. Accordingly, we affirm the district court….
Here's the core of the court's analysis rejecting the child pornography claims:
