A Somersworth café has won its state Supreme Court challenge against Facebook, in a unanimous ruling Friday that sends the contract dispute back to a district court.
Emmett Soldati, owner of the Teatotaller café, challenged Facebook in Dover’s small claims court, saying he was owed damages after the company deleted the café’s Instagram account in 2018.
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Facebook, which owns Instagram, claimed immunity from the challenge under its terms of use and a federal communications law that says online publishing platforms aren’t liable in any way for content posted by users – including for the deletion of that content.
The small claims court sided with Facebook and dismissed the case, prompting Soldati's appeal.
Now, the state Supreme Court says the lower court made the wrong call. They say the immunity argument is not clear and the lower court shouldn’t have dismissed the case up front.
It meant validation for Soldati, after months waiting for the ruling, while the pandemic all but shut down his business.
“What we did…was demonstrate that we do have rights as users – that social media companies, big tech companies, cannot hide behind federal statutes…to suggest that they are simply these publishing companies that have no obligations,” he says.
Soldati, who's also running for Executive Council, says whatever ends up happening when the case returns to district court, “This is a victory in holding big tech accountable, and holding them accountable specifically to their users, which is how they make their money.”
Facebook declined to comment on the ruling.
