Gonzalez’s lawyers claims YouTube thumbnails are actually a lot like emails
Eric Schnapper, the lawyer representing the families suing Google and Twitter, decided to hang much of his Section 230 argument Tuesday on an odd choice: YouTube thumbnails.
Schnapper claimed tech companies like Google lose their 230 immunity when thumbnails are made because the company created the image used and a URL associated with the video. That involvement, Schnapper claimed, shifts YouTube’s videos out of the realm of “third party” content traditionally understood to be covered by 230 and into something else entirely.
“Our contention is [that] the use of thumbnails is the same thing under the statute as sending someone an email and saying, ‘You might like to look at this new video now,’” Schnapper said.
Justices weren’t exactly convinced by that point though with several saying they were left “thoroughly confused” by Schnapper’s reasoning.
