• frazw@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Why is it OK for an American company to headquarter in one state then cherry pick another in which to file a lawsuit? Surely a company should be governed by the laws of the state in which they are based. It seems weird to choose the set of laws you want to be judged by when the defendant cannot do the same.

    • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Because the system is set up so that the powerful can fuck over the powerless in any way they want.

    • FlumPHP@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      It shouldn’t be OK and Media Matters will surely file for a change of venue. They’re located in DC and Twitter in California. Heck, Twitters own TOS says that your use of the service is governed by California law, so any claim that they fraudulently used the service should be handled in California.

      But activist judges are also known to deny motions for made up reasons, so Twitter starts in Texas in hopes an activist judge keeps the case there to “stick it to the liberals.”

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Texas is famous for judges that keep the venue there, with laws that are friendly to corporations. It’s why it’s the most popular state for these shitbird corporate lawyers to file suits.

    • ZickZack@fedia.io
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      1 year ago

      Surely a company should be governed by the laws of the state in which they are based

      This is not true and wouldn’t make why sense: let’s say you are a delivery company and one of your drivers runs over a dog in Texas. The lawsuit can be filed in Texas, regardless of whether your company is in Texas, California, or even outside the united states. The place you are incorporated in doesn’t change the damages or laws you violated when running over the dog. Of course you can also move the venue to the state the company is based in.

      You cannot (generally) move it to another state, since that state doesn’t even have jurisdiction over any part of the incident.

      The internet is just special in the sense that really something that happened on the internet happened everywhere on earth at the same time, meaning any venue is a place where potential damages were accrued.

      • frazw@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Agree that if an incident happens in a particular jurisdiction, the local court should handle it. That makes sense, no argument here. But here they get to choose the set of laws because there was no physical location? That just feels wrong somehow. Anyway there is a physical location and if anything, the incident was ‘perpetrated’ by a person who was physically located somewhere at the time. It should be handled by the court local to them at the time. In the case of organisations, I guess this would mean where the defendant company operates from. Or if we accept it is virtual and everywhere then, it should be governed by federal laws not state laws.

      • DacoTaco@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Makes sense, but how can things like the slapp suit from bob murray have been in a state (west virginia) neither hbo ( who called bob a lot of shit and is located in new york ) , bob murray ( utah) or his company were in?
        Edit: excuse me, i meant bob murray, not bill murrey

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think your example covers the case where a company has a lawsuit filed against it. And the object of the lawsuit is an event that occurred in a particular state. But why should a company be able to originate a lawsuit in the state of their choosing? Shouldn’t it either be their home state or the home state of whom ever they’re suing? Or wherever the events in question took place?

        • ZickZack@fedia.io
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          1 year ago

          The issue with the internet is that it did take place in texas as well: The news article was available in texas, so the news corp can be sued there. Basically the argument is: “Media Matters harmed X’s brand in texas using misleading information” (you can read their arguments for filing in texas under the “Jurisdiction and Venue” section of their filing).

          Also remember that this is currently X’s wish list: Media Matters can file for a change in venue.

          Edit: Quick update.

          Looking at their filing, the case will probably fail under a motion for summary judgment: They basically agree with Media Matters that they did show ads under extremist’s posts. They simply argue that you need to push the twitter algorithm to its limits by doomscrolling for a long time until the algorithm fails. However, this doesn’t make any of the facts provided by Media Matters (https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle) wrong.

        • mosiacmango
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          1 year ago

          It was handed to the same trump judge that struck down student loan forgiveness.

          Its super clear why he filed it there, and it isn’t because he lives there.