Here at Socially Aware, we have been discussing issues around ownership of social media accounts since the beginning of social media. Just last July, we reported on how a bankruptcy court in Florida forced the founder and...more
Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act provides broad immunity to online platforms for claims arising from hosting third-party content (though just how broad is a hot issue that the Supreme Court may decide this...more
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill continue to take aim at social media platforms that collect and use personal information that build algorithms to target individuals across a variety of dimensions when users engage with those...more
As regular readers of Socially Aware already know, there are many potential traps for companies that use photographs or other content without authorization from the copyright owners. For example, companies have faced...more
A federal district court in California has added to the small body of case law addressing whether it’s permissible for one party to use another party’s trademark as a hashtag. The court held that, for several reasons, the 9th...more
In what is being described as “the first settlement to deem such sales illegally deceptive,” New York Attorney General Letitia James has entered into a settlement with a company that had been selling fake followers, likes and...more
Finding that President Trump’s Twitter feed constitutes a public forum, a federal judge in New York City held that it’s a First Amendment violation when the President or one of his assistants blocks a Twitter user from...more
In 2016, brands spent $570 million on social influencer endorsements on Instagram alone. This recode article takes a looks at how much influencers with certain followings can command, and whether they’re worth the investment....more
9/25/2017
/ Advertising ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Endorsements ,
EU ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Endorsement Guidelines ,
Google ,
Influencers ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Instagram ,
Snapchat ,
Social Media
Twitter updated its online Privacy Policy to disclose that Twitter will be personalizing content and facilitating interest-based advertising by sharing information about its users’ online activity both on and off the...more
A New York State senator has introduced a bill that would make posting footage of a crime to social media with the intention of glorifying violence or becoming famous punishable by up to four years in prison and fines....more
The Decline and Fall of the Section 230 Safe Harbor? -
2016 was a tough year for a lot of reasons, most of which are outside the scope of this blog (though if you’d like to hear our thoughts about Bowie, Prince or...more
2/10/2017
/ Advertising ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
Email ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Geo-Blocking ,
Microsoft ,
Safe Harbors ,
Section 230 ,
Social Media ,
Stored Communications Act ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
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
Twitter took steps to remedy its harassment problem.
In addition, over the last six months, Twitter suspended 235,000 accounts that promoted terrorism....more
Since our previous article on the emerging issue of trademark rights in hashtags, the use of hashtags in social media marketing has continued to grow. Described as the “ignition keys to a social media keyword search,”...more
7/18/2016
/ Advertising ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Hashtags ,
International Trademark Protection ,
Marketing ,
Popular ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Social Media ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Young Lawyers
Welcome to the newest issue of Socially Aware, our Burton Award winning guide to the law and business of social media. In this edition, we offer tips for a successful—and legal—advertising campaign; we examine a New York...more
3/9/2016
/ Advertising ,
B2C ,
Big Data ,
Digital Goods ,
Discovery ,
Discovery Rule ,
EU ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Internet Retailers ,
Marketing ,
Mobile Apps ,
Native Advertising ,
Social Media ,
Terms and Conditions ,
User-Generated Content
Since its launch in 2011, the social media platform Snapchat has generated its share of negative press, with most of that press in some way related to the very characteristic that, at least initially, helped Snapchat to...more
Welcome to the newest issue of Socially Aware, our Burton Award winning guide to the law and business of social media. In this edition, we present a “grand unifying theory” of today’s leading technologies and the legal...more
7/29/2015
/ Advertising ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Creditors ,
Data Collection ,
Data Storage Providers ,
Digital Assets ,
Discovery ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Evidence ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hashtags ,
HBO ,
Live Streaming ,
Marketing ,
Online Reviews ,
Retail Tracking ,
Sanctions ,
Showtime ,
Social Media ,
Spoliation ,
Trademarks ,
Twitter ,
Yelp
The explosive growth of social media has clients facing legal questions that didn’t even exist a few short years ago. Helping your clients navigate this muddled legal landscape will have them clicking “like” in no...more
In This Issue:
- What’s in a Like?
- R.I.P.: The Facebook “Like” Gate
- Facebook Dislikes Fake Likes
- Privacy in the Cloud: A Legal Framework for Moving Personal Data to the Cloud
- Click...more
12/17/2014
/ Advertising ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Cloud Computing ,
COPPA ,
Counterfeiting ,
Data Protection ,
EU ,
Facebook ,
Infringement ,
Internet ,
Mobile Apps ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
UK ,
Websites
Commercial free content. Would you pay to diminish the number of ads that appear on your screen while you surf the Web? Google is testing a service that will allow users to do just that. The service, called Contributor, will...more
..Laundry time. Make sure you are getting what you’re paying for. That’s good advice in a lot of areas of human endeavor and it’s certainly true of online advertising. We wrote last month about efforts by the online...more
..Lyfted documents? Uber and Lyft, two ride-sharing companies that are both expanding rapidly and trying to take business away from traditional taxis in cities across the nation, have never been on the best of terms. Their...more
11/7/2014
/ Advertising ,
C-Suite Executives ,
Confidential Information ,
Facebook ,
Former Employee ,
Lyft ,
Native Advertising ,
Online Advertisements ,
Social Media ,
Twitter ,
Uber
..Clearing the air. Aereo, the startup broadcasting service that lost big in the U.S. Supreme Court last June, just lost another, and possibly its last, court battle. A U.S. district judge in the Southern District of New...more
..Going mainstream. For the first time, both Twitter and Facebook are seeing significant growth in online advertising placed by major companies for brands such as Heineken, Tide, McDonald’s, and Charmin. Major consumer...more
8/1/2014
/ Advertising ,
Facebook ,
Judges ,
Juror ,
Law Enforcement ,
Manufacturers ,
Mobile Devices ,
Online Advertisements ,
Retailers ,
Social Networks ,
Twitter
In This Issue:
Peering Into the Future: Google Glass and the Law; Ownership of Business-Related Social Media Accounts; Two Circuits Address the First Amendment Status of Facebook Activity; Collaborative Consumption –...more