5/15 – A federal judge in Illinois has dismissed a defamation and privacy lawsuit filed by Nikko D’Ambrosio against Meta, members of the private Facebook group “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” and its moderators. D’Ambrosio alleged defamation, doxxing, and violations of the Illinois Right of Publicity Act after women in the group posted about him and his dating behavior. U.S. District Judge Sunil R. Harjani ruled that D’Ambrosio failed to allege any false statements or show that the posts met the legal threshold for defamation per se. He also did not demonstrate that his photo was used for commercial purposes, a requirement for his publicity claim. The court found the group’s content largely consisted of protected opinion, not actionable defamatory statements. The ruling underscores the difficulty of pursuing defamation claims based on online speech, especially when the content is framed as personal opinion.