this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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[–] Buffalox 132 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This is insane, there should be fines for frivolous lawsuits like this.

[–] mipadaitu 114 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This is why he moved to Texas

[–] [email protected] 63 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

And changed the twitter ToS to require suits in a specific part of texas.

Elon Musk's X updated its terms of service to steer user lawsuits to US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, the same court where a judge who bought Tesla stock is overseeing an X lawsuit against the nonprofit Media Matters for America.

The new terms that apply to users of the X social network say that all disputes related to the terms "will be brought exclusively in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas or state courts located in Tarrant County, Texas, United States, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those forums and waive any objection as to inconvenient forum."

X recently moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Texas, but the new headquarters are not in the Northern District or Tarrant County. X's headquarters are in Bastrop, the county seat of Bastrop County, which is served by US District Court for the Western District of Texas.

[–] spankmonkey 73 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Amazing how terms of service apparently carry the same weight as laws, yet can be changed arbitrarily by businesses on a whim.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It also wouldn't fly in the EU anyway.

Any lawsuits have to be brought in the country in which the citizen bringing the suit lives. So if I wanted to sue Twitter I literally would have to do them where I live. There is no way for me to sue them in Texas since I'm not a citizen of Texas or the US.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

How likely is that chunk to be thrown out for being obviously ridiculous?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago

In a past life, pretty plausible.

Now that Elmo is the First Lady, this is the best TOS that's ever been written by anyone ever. It's perfect. It probably trumps the constitution because of how perfect it is.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

According to the article, not that likely:

Terms requiring users to sue in specific courts are usually enforceable, Vanderbilt Law School Professor Brian Fitzpatrick told Ars today. "There might be an argument that there was no consent to the new terms, but if you have to click on something at some point acknowledging you read the new terms, consent will probably be found," he told us in an email.

A user attempting to sue X in a different state or district probably wouldn't get very far. "If a suit was filed in the wrong court, it would be dismissed (if filed in state court) or transferred (if filed in federal court)," Fitzpatrick said.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It seems insane to me that the US system lets you literally specify the exact judge (that you've already bought and paid for) as the only judge that can hear cases against you. And that the system is basically OK with this.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

It's also insane that a judge with a vested interest in one of the claimants, doesn't have to automatically recuse themselves.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

They do... It's just not expected that they won't

Pains of being a prototype democracy and all... If only the founding fathers had explicitly told us our system would need reform as issues came up

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

So we're just going past the line of obviously corrupt without batting an eye? They even tell us now. Written. Legally binding.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 6 days ago

There are. In most states.

He's having the suits filed specifically in one of the few states that don't.