As in-game economies evolve, the complexity surrounding virtual goods and services, content creation, and payment structures deepens. As part of this ongoing series on in-game economies, this installment explores issues...more
4/9/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Compliance ,
Copyright ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Media ,
EULA ,
Financial Services Industry ,
In-Game Purchases ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Money Transmitter ,
Payment Systems ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Third-Party ,
User-Generated Content
In a rare unanimous decision, on January 17, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that bans TikTok in the United States on national security grounds so long as it has its current ownership structure. TikTok chose to make the...more
1/23/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
China ,
Data Collection ,
Executive Orders ,
First Amendment ,
Google ,
National Security ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Privacy Laws ,
SCOTUS ,
Social Media ,
TikTok ,
Trump Administration ,
User-Generated Content ,
YouTube
In Ryan v. X Corp., a Northern District of California court held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunized X (formerly Twitter) against claims arising from suspension of a user’s account, notwithstanding...more
1/22/2025
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Automation Systems ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Content Publishing ,
Contract Terms ,
Data Protection ,
Machine Learning ,
Online Platforms ,
Safe Harbors ,
Section 230 ,
Social Media ,
User-Generated Content
Character Technologies has been hit with two lawsuits, including a wrongful death suit (among other claims), in less than two months over its popular Character.ai chatbot. The first was filed in the U.S. District Court for...more
12/13/2024
/ Algorithms ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Bots ,
Breach of Contract ,
Defamation ,
Facebook ,
Fraud ,
Immunity ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Mental Health ,
Metaverse ,
Minors ,
Music Industry ,
Piracy ,
Popular ,
Preemptive Challenges ,
Safe Harbors ,
Terms of Service ,
Terms of Use ,
Uber ,
Web Scraping ,
Willful Infringement
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has sent a challenge to Texas’s controversial online age verification law back to district court for additional clarification, while leaving the lower court’s injunction...more
11/14/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Blogging Platforms ,
Canada ,
Domain Names ,
Electronic Devices ,
Fake Reviews ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fraud ,
Minors ,
Mobile Apps ,
Online Platforms ,
Online Reviews ,
TikTok ,
Verification Requirements
California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB-1047. The controversial bill was intended to establish safety guidelines for artificial intelligence models and would have been the first significant piece of state AI...more
10/8/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
California ,
Deep Fake ,
Governor Newsom ,
Governor Vetoes ,
Mental Health ,
Online Safety for Children ,
Severance Agreements ,
Social Media ,
Twitter
Sick of the “very demure, very mindful” social media trend yet? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office probably is too. Our national nightmare began on August 5 when TikToker Jools LeBron uploaded a video of herself...more
9/25/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Conspiracies ,
Data Collection ,
EU ,
First Amendment ,
Minors ,
Money Laundering ,
Music Industry ,
Social Media ,
State Attorneys General ,
TikTok ,
Trademark Registration ,
USPTO ,
Warning Labels ,
Wire Fraud
Lingo Telecom, a Georgia-based VoIP service operator, has agreed to pay a $1 million fine for using AI-generated deepfake technology to spoof President Joe Biden’s voice in a series of robocalls. A Louisiana political...more
9/5/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
California ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Deep Fake ,
Google ,
Machine Learning ,
Music Industry ,
Online Advertisements ,
Reddit ,
Robocalling ,
Telecommunications ,
VoIP
In a rare example of bipartisan agreement, the dramatically named DEFIANCE (Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits) Act unanimously passed the Senate. The bill allows victims of AI-generated deepfake...more
8/6/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Blackmail ,
Censorship ,
COPPA ,
Copyright Office ,
Deep Fake ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Intent to Defraud ,
Metaverse ,
Nigeria ,
Pornography ,
Section 230 ,
Social Media
As we reported in 2023, Utah was the first state in the nation to enact laws limiting minors’ use of social media. In early March 2024, Republican Governor Spencer Cox effectively repealed and replaced the previously enacted...more
4/4/2024
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Big Tech ,
Data Collection ,
Governor DeSantis ,
Immunity ,
Liability ,
Minors ,
OMB ,
Parental Consent ,
Section 230 ,
Social Media ,
Targeted Digital Advertising
Conversations around AI continue to dominate the headlines in early 2024 and show no signs of abating anytime soon. Here are few of the stories and trends we’ve been tracking at Socially Aware. A deepfake technology scam...more
In a significant move toward enhancing transparency and trust in digital content, Meta has announced plans to introduce labeling for AI-generated images across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Nick Clegg, President of Global...more
While generative AI seems to be getting all of the attention these days, the medical field is another area where AI is gaining traction. Axios reports about a partnership between Elsevier and OpenEvidence that’s helping...more
The D.C. district court recently affirmed the U.S. Copyright Office’s position that a work generated entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) technology is not eligible for copyright protection. The case is Stephen Thaler v....more
8/30/2023
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Authorship ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Copyright Office ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventors ,
Machine Learning ,
The Copyright Act ,
Work Made For Hire Doctrine
In May 2023, Steven Schwartz of Levidow, Levidow & Oberman admitted that he used a generative AI (GAI) platform to produce six non-existent court decisions as citations during his representation in a personal injury case...more
Over the past year, we have seen a dramatic increase in the adoption of AI technologies across industries. Because transactions involving AI technologies can resemble those involving traditional software, like SaaS...more
Singapore has enacted a law granting government ministers the power to require social media platforms to completely remove or place warnings alongside posts the authorities designate as false....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 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
In an effort to deter hate groups from tweeting sanitized versions of their messages, Twitter has began considering account holders’ off platform behavior when the platform evaluates whether potentially harmful tweets should...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
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
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
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
A New Jersey court rules that state police can examine a suspect’s private social media messages without having to apply for an order under the state’s wiretapping laws.
Technology companies are exercising a lot of...more