As an alternative, Zuckerman considers third-party tools like Unfollow Everything 2.0 that "operate at the explicit direction of social media users" as "a particularly promising avenue for improving online experiences." Not only would these tools, also known as middleware, provide users with more options, but they could also reduce the burden on large platforms like Facebook that cannot possibly "do all the things society is asking them to do," Zuckerman told Ars.
So far, Meta has not responded to Ars' request to comment, but the Facebook owner has 21 days to respond to Zuckerman's complaint.
Because Zuckerman's complaint is so unusual, there's no telling how the court will react to his filing. Legal experts told Techdirt that some of the most interesting questions raised by his case may not even be considered if the court rejects the case as an untested legal theory unworthy of the court's time or as having no standing because Meta has not sued Zuckerman.
Santa Clara University Internet law professor Eric Goldman told Ars that "most likely, a court will say that Zuckerman's fears of possible future legal liability are currently insufficient for him to initiate a legal battle."
Krishnan, the attorney who helped draft Zuckerman's complaint, disagreed, telling Ars that "an individual doesn’t have to 'bet the farm' and risk litigation before they can seek a judicial declaration of their rights. It’s enough that a person have a real and reasonable fear that they will be subject to legal action. Zuckerman easily satisfies that test because Meta has threatened legal action against similar tools in the past, including, of course, the nearly identical Unfollow Everything."
Barclay, the creator of the original Unfollow Everything, in a Substack post, said Meta pursued him for "nearly a year" after sending the cease-and-desist letter. So although he only expects that Zuckerman's "suit might cause a mild frown" from Facebook exec Nick Clegg "for approximately 1.3 seconds," Barclay said he is "over the moon" and "insanely grateful" that Zuckerman is "taking on this huge burden" to stop Big Tech companies from bullying developers "building great software."
"I’m one of probably hundreds of people who have received cease-and-desists from Big Tech for building something in the public interest," Barclay wrote. "But I’m one of the vanishingly rare cases where the substance of the cease-and-desist might end up being challenged in court."
Barclay told Ars that "sadly, Zuckerman's US suit won't change anything legally for me in the UK—but if he wins, I hope US developers will pick up the baton and make a ton more software to give users more power over big tech, with the space that would open up."
Sparking a movement around middleware
Zuckerman and Barclay aren't the only developers who have feared legal action over tools intended to research and change the online experience of platform users.
His complaint points to a web browser called Friendly that "allowed users to search their Facebook newsfeeds by keyword, reorder their feeds chronologically, and customize the display of their Facebook pages." There was also a browser extension called "Ad Observer" that collected information on Facebook ads served to users.
Meta threatened those developers with legal action, alleging violations of its terms of service and laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and California’s Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA).
Zuckerman hopes the court will agree that Unfollow Everything 2.0 wouldn't be guilty of any of these violations, mostly because the tool would only give users more control over functionality that Facebook itself provides, and it doesn't require any improper access to Meta's servers or sensitive user data. It was also designed to steadily unfollow in intervals so it wouldn't overburden Facebook’s servers by requesting a ton of unfollows at once.
But Barclay noted on Substack that his efforts in 2021 failed to convince Facebook that his motivations for developing Unfollow Everything were purely to help people increasingly concerned about their overuse of social media. "They could not have cared less," Barclay wrote, and they "banned me without warning."
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