Maker of Facebook ‘Unfollow’ Tool Lacks Standing to Sue Meta

An internet scholar and activist behind a proposed browser extension that would turn off a Facebook user’s newsfeed doesn’t have standing to sue Meta Platforms Inc., a San Francisco federal judge said Thursday.

Ethan Zuckerman, a communications professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, hasn’t yet built his “Unfollow Everything 2.0" app, so he can’t seek a preemptive court order declaring that the tool abides by Meta’s terms of service, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said at hearing.

Corley, in a ruling from the bench, said she would dismiss Zuckerman’s novel suit seeking legal immunity from Meta if he released ...