{"id":249845,"date":"2021-06-16T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T04:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=249845"},"modified":"2021-06-18T10:22:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T04:52:54","slug":"facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2021\/06\/16\/facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Facebook\u2019s login notification system an \u2018autodialer\u2019 as per Telephone Consumers Protection Act? Read what SCOTUS had to say\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court of The United States (SCOTUS): <\/strong>On April 1st<\/sup>, the 9 Judge Bench of the Court while looking into the allegations levelled against Facebook for violating the Telephone Consumers Protection Act, 1991 (hereinafter TCPA), held that the Court cannot rewrite the TCPA to update it for modern technology. Congress\u2019 cho\u00adsen definition of an autodialer requires that the equipment in question must use a random or sequential number generator. That definition excludes equipment like Facebook\u2019s login notification system, which does not use such technology. The Court held that in order to qualify as an \u201cautomatic telephone dialing system\u201d under the TCPA, a device must have the capacity either to store a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator, or to produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator.<\/p>\n

The facts as they stood; popular social media platform Facebook, as a security feature, allows users to elect to receive text messages when someone attempts to log in to the user\u2019s account from a new device or browser. Noah Duguid was sent such texts by Facebook which alerted him to a login his Facebook account linked to his mobile number. The twist in the tale came up when Duguid stated that he never created that particular account or for that matter any other account on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Duguid tried unsuccessfully to stop the unwanted messages, and eventually brought a putative class action against Facebook. He alleged that Facebook violated the TCPA by maintaining a database that stored phone numbers and programming its equipment to send automated text messages. Facebook contended that the TCPA does not apply because the technology it used to text Duguid did not use a \u201crandom or sequential number generator\u201d. The Ninth Circuit\u2019s however did not favour Facebook when it held that S. 227 (a) (1) of the TCPA applies to a notifica\u00adtion system like Facebook\u2019s that has the capacity to dial automatically stored numbers.<\/p>\n

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) forbids abu\u00adsive telemarketing practices by, among other things, restricting cer\u00adtain communications made with an \u201cautomatic telephone dialing sys\u00adtem.\u201d The TCPA defines such \u201cautodialers\u201d as equipment with the capacity both \u201cto store or produce telephone numbers to be called, us\u00ading a random or sequential number generator,\u201d and to dial those num\u00adbers. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Perusing the facts and the relevant statutes, the Court observed that the issue is that whether the clause \u201cusing a random or se\u00adquential number generator\u201d in S. 227(a)(1)(A) modifies both of the two verbs that precede it (\u201cstore\u201d and \u201cproduce\u201d)<\/em><\/strong>, or only the closest one (\u201cproduce\u201d)<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0The former interpretation was adopted by Facebook in the matter. The Court noted that the most natural reading of the text and other aspects of S. 227(a)(1)(A) confirms Facebook\u2019s view-<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In an ordinary case, the \u201cseries-qualifier canon\u201d instructs that a modifier at the end of a series of nouns or verbs applies to the entire series.<\/li>\n
  2. The modify\u00ading phrase immediately follows a concise, integrated clause (\u201cstore or produce telephone numbers to be called\u201d), which uses the word \u201cor\u201d to connect two verbs that share a common direct object (\u201ctelephone num\u00adbers to be called\u201d).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n