The lawsuit could empower consumers to have greater control over what they see on social media

A Massachusetts professor, Ethan Zuckerman, has filed a lawsuit against Meta using an unusual interpretation of Section 230, a law that traditionally protects tech companies from liability for user posts.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act allows for web operators, large and small, to moderate user speech and content as they see fit.

Zuckerman’s lawsuit argues that Section 230’s protections for blocking objectionable content could also support tools that let users filter out content they don’t want to see.

He has requested a federal court to say that a part of Section 230 permits him to launch his software, which would enable users to unfollow everyone on Facebook automatically.

If successful, the lawsuit could empower consumers to have greater control over what they see on social media, challenging the dominance of big tech companies.

The lawsuit was inspired by a 2020 browser extension called “Unfollow Everything,” created to reduce time spent on Facebook.

The social media sent a cease-and-desist letter to the creator, forcing him to shut the tool in 2021.