The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit killed the legal bid by Canadian publisher Shared Partnership to hold Meta accountable for shutting down its Facebook pages in October 2020. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lee, writing for the three-judge panel, held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shielded Meta from the publisher’s “conversion” claim. The court, in its decision dated October 30, 2026, in Shared Partnership v. Meta Platforms, Inc. (No. 25-2612), found that removing the pages was a core publishing function protected by federal law.
Shared Partnership had built a massive digital footprint over a decade, amassing roughly 25 million Facebook followers. The company’s business model relied on provocative, high-click-content, but the approach came with friction. Over the years, Shared submitted more than 500,000 advertisements to Meta’s self-service platform. While most cleared review, the platform rejected over 18,000 for policy violations, including sensationalist or adult material. One notable rejection involved an ad featuring actor Luke Wilson and images of damaged cars, which Meta blocked for depicting violence.
The publisher’s chief executive, Jordan Nabigon, argued that the shutdown destroyed a unique property interest. Shared contended that Meta unlawfully interfered with its exclusive rights to the pages, effectively seizing its audience. The company also tried to reframe the case as a breach of contract, citing Facebook’s Terms of Service which stipulated that accounts could only be disabled for serious or repeated violations. Shared pointed to the earlier Ninth Circuit case Calise v. Meta Platforms, suggesting that contractual promises separate from content moderation should fall outside Section 230 immunity.
The appeals court rejected that loophole. The panel determined that the specific terms Shared relied on did not create a separate contractual promise distinct from Meta’s publishing activities. Therefore, the statutory protection applied in full. The ruling confirms that platforms retain significant discretion in moderating third-party content and removing accounts without facing liability for interfering with business interests derived from that platform.
Shared Partnership’s legal avenue for this specific claim is now closed. The decision stands as a significant reinforcement of Section 230 protections for major tech platforms in the Ninth Circuit. With the conversion claim dismissed, the publisher has no further appellate recourse on this matter in the US federal courts.