Based on copyright infringement, emotional distress and other claims, a federal district court in California awarded $6.4 million to a victim of revenge porn, the posting of explicit material without the subject’s consent....more
In order to comply with a new German law requiring social media sites to take down hate speech, Twitter and Facebook removed anti-Islamic social media posts authored by a German far-right political party....more
After British police unsuccessfully tried to get the blogging platform WordPress.com to remove offensive and threatening posts, the deputy leader of the UK’s Labour Party vowed to urge changes that would make the country’s...more
As part of a new tracking system, the Department of Homeland Security will be keeping records of immigrants’ social media handles and search results.
Russia to Facebook: Turn over user-information or risk being blocked....more
A federal appeals court in Miami held that a judge needn’t necessarily recuse herself from a case being argued by a lawyer with whom the judge is merely Facebook “friends.”...more
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that a North Carolina law that the state has used to prosecute more than 1,000 sex offenders for posting on social media is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment....more
6/26/2017
/ Certiorari ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Copyright ,
DMCA ,
EU ,
Facebook ,
Fair Use ,
First Amendment ,
Hate Speech ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Offenders ,
Social Media ,
YouTube
Instagram is now allowing a limited number of users to identify branded content with a “paid partnership” subhead instead of using hashtags like #ad and #sponsored to identify sponsored posts. The platform says it plans to...more
One year since agreeing with the European Commission to remove hate speech within 24 hours of receiving a complaint about it, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube are removing flagged content an average of 59% of the...more
A nice overview of the rules on researching jurors’ social media accounts in various jurisdictions from Law.com.
The importance of appearing at the top of Google search results, especially on mobile devices, is driving...more
Without Google’s permission, Burger King ended one of its television commercials with a statement designed to automatically cause Google Assistant devices to read a list of the Whopper’s ingredients out loud.
Having passed...more
Twitter is suing the Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to void a summons demanding records that would identify the creator of an anti-Trump Twitter account.
Facebook has joined the fight against the...more
A court ruled that a particular 98-character tweet wasn’t sufficiently creative to warrant protection under German copyright law.
Inspired by a recording posted to Snapchat of a physical attack on a 14-year-old boy, a...more
Facebook is implementing a feature that uses artificial intelligence to identify posts reflecting suicidal inclinations.
Google unveiled a new tool designed to combat toxic speech online by assessing the language...more
New York City’s Conflicts of Interest Board has issued guidelines prohibiting elected officials from using official social media accounts for political purposes or having their staff draft content for their personal social...more
Over 30 workers at a Japanese insurance company are losing their jobs following the company’s adoption of IBM’s Watson Explorer, an artificial intelligence system that will perform an important back office function at the...more
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has filed suit to overturn a law that requires the popular entertainment website to remove the ages or birth dates of people in the entertainment industry upon request.
Vine might not...more
Because it bases its assesments on job title, location and industry, LinkedIn’s new Salary feature might be more accurate than are other online compensation estimation tools....more
Facebook at Work, the on-the-job version of the web’s most popular social media platform, will launch in London on October 10th.
Add iHeartRadio to the list of Internet radio platforms that will be offering an on demand...more
Snapchat is on track to rake in an enormous amount of ad revenue by 2017.
Also, there’s mounting evidence that the company is working toward developing a Google Glass-like product.
We have written previously...more
Instagram now allows users to zoom in on photos in their feeds and at least 11 brands are already capitalizing on the new feature.
Pinterest acquired Instapaper, a tool that allows you to cache webpages for reading at a...more
9/6/2016
/ Advertising ,
Facebook ,
Instagram ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Funds ,
Investors ,
Journalism ,
Mobile Apps ,
Photographs ,
Pinterest ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media
Google is cracking down on mobile pop-up ads by knocking down the search-result position of websites that use them.
The National Labor Relations Board decided a social media policy that Chipotle had in place for its...more
8/29/2016
/ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Endorsement Guidelines ,
Google ,
Hate Speech ,
Instagram ,
Jury Selection ,
Kardashians ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Native Advertising ,
NLRB ,
Personal Data ,
Pop-Up Ads ,
Revenge Porn ,
Social Media ,
Truth in Advertising ,
Twitter ,
UK ,
Visa Waiver Program
Twitter took steps to remedy its harassment problem.
In addition, over the last six months, Twitter suspended 235,000 accounts that promoted terrorism....more
Facebook introduced technology that disables ad blockers used by people who visit the platform via desktop computers, but Adblock Plus has already foiled the platform’s efforts, at least for now....more
8/15/2016
/ Ad-Blockers ,
Amicus Briefs ,
Copyright ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
LinkedIn ,
Mobile Apps ,
PETA ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media ,
Software ,
Twitter ,
Web Scraping
Instagram now allows celebrities to block trolls. The rest of us will have to continue trying to ignore Instagram trolls.
While Facebook reached new highs last quarter, Twitter continued to stumble. Will adding more live...more
8/1/2016
/ Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Defamation ,
Emoji ,
Facebook ,
Instagram ,
LinkedIn ,
Pinterest ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media ,
Trolls ,
Twitter ,
Yelp
Facebook Messenger joins the elite “one billion monthly users” club just four years after its release as a standalone app....more
7/25/2016
/ Criminal Prosecution ,
Distracted Driving ,
Evidence ,
Facebook ,
Mobile Apps ,
Revenge Porn ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media ,
Trial Court Orders ,
Trolls ,
Twitter ,
User-Generated Content ,
Video Games