Collaborators Using the ‘Instagram Collabs’ Feature May Forego a Section 230 Defense–Winer v. Mohammed

[I have so many Section 230 cases backlogged in my blogging queue, but this one is jumping the queue because of its comparative novelty.] This is a defamation case between a professor and a student in the Emory School of Medicine. It is one of the countless lawsuits related to the Gaza war, Palestinian rights, and Zionism/anti-Zionism. In this case, the student publicly and repreatedly criticized the professor for serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and in response the school suspended her. Her suspension became a cause celebre. Separately, the professor sued her and several outlets that amplified her remarks. It is a major proxy battle over its highly charged topics; about two dozen lawyers are litigating some aspect of this case. This post focuses on one corner of that larger litigation endeavor. Two defendants, CAIR Georgia and CAIR Foundation, used the Instagram Collabs feature to jointly post allegedly defamatory content involving the student’s story. Instagram describes…