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Teatotaller Cafe Goes Up Against Facebook Tuesday at N.H. Supreme Court

Teatotaller
/
via Instagram

The New Hampshire Supreme Court hears oral arguments Tuesday in a dispute between Facebook and a Seacoast coffee shop.

Emmett Soldati owns Teatotaller in Somersworth. He's suing Facebook for, he says, unfairly deleting his cafe's Instagram account in 2018.

Soldati, who is also running for Executive Council, argues that Facebook's terms of use directed him to take the case to a local small claims court.

But there, Facebook lawyers argued they were protected from the suit by a federal communications law. The local court agreed.

In his Supreme Court appeal, Soldati says Facebook is violating its own terms of use, and that the federal law they invoked shouldn't cover them.

Soldati wants damages for the business he says he lost with Teatotaller's original Instagram.

He's representing himself in this oral argument, scheduled for Tuesday morning. Facebook has lawyers coming in from Vermont and San Francisco.

Click to read Facebook’s brief in the case.

Annie has covered the environment, energy, climate change and the Seacoast region for NHPR since 2017. She leads the newsroom's climate reporting project, By Degrees.
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