The Federal Trade Commission has finalized a new rule aimed at curtailing false, misleading, and otherwise fraudulent reviews on online retail sites. Fake reviews are a significant problem for the big e-commerce platforms,...more
8/28/2024
/ Cybersquatting ,
Defamation ,
Domain Names ,
E-Commerce ,
Endorsements ,
Fake Reviews ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Instagram ,
Microsoft ,
Online Reviews ,
Reddit ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Social Media
Social media giant TikTok has been sued by the United States for allegedly collecting data on children under thirteen illegally. The suit claims the app, which is owned by China-based parent company ByteDance, allowed...more
8/19/2024
/ Big Tech ,
Boycotts ,
Data Collection ,
Deep Fake ,
DMCA ,
Electronic Frontier Foundation ,
Minors ,
Parental Consent ,
Section 230 ,
Securities Fraud ,
Social Media ,
TikTok ,
Twitter
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
In our fourth installment of our six-part series examining Section 230—the segment of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) that immunizes online service providers from liability stemming from content created by third...more
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 In early March 2024, Republican Governor Spencer Cox effectively repealed and replaced the previously enacted...more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
In the prior two installments of our six-part series examining Section 230, the section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) that immunizes online service providers from liability stemming from the publication and...more
Here at Socially Aware we talk a lot about Section 230, the section of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) that immunizes social media platforms and other online service providers from liability stemming from content...more
Social media continues to dominate the headlines this spring, with several high-profile events capturing the media’s, regulators’, and lawmakers’ attention.
Jack Owoc, founder and former CEO of Bang Energy (“Bang,” a...more
Section 23o, the “26 words that changed the Internet,” is once again under scrutiny from lawmakers.
At the federal level, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary panel’s subcommittee on privacy, technology, and...more
In early March 2022, a coalition of state attorneys general launched an investigation of TikTok to determine whether the social media platform, which is popular among young Americans, causes long-term harm to them....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
In late October, Facebook announced that it would change its name to Meta, signaling a shift of the social media giant’s focus toward the metaverse, a virtual space where social media, gaming, augmented reality, virtual...more
12/21/2021
/ Communications Decency Act ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
JAMA ,
LinkedIn ,
Pinterest ,
Rebranding ,
Social Media ,
Technology ,
Video Recordings ,
Websites
Social Links is our ongoing series here at Socially Aware that rounds up current developments at the intersection of social media, policy, research, and the law.
Embedding social media posts can be considered copyright...more
Experts anticipate that the incoming Biden administration will be tough on tech. What does that mean for the future of §230 of the Communications Decency Act? The antitrust suit against Google? China’s involvement in personal...more
1/8/2021
/ Communications Decency Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Endorsements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Internet ,
Joe Biden ,
Social Media ,
Technology Sector ,
UK ,
Vaccinations
In an attempt to shut down free speech online, Turkey enacted a law that requires social media platforms with more than a million daily users in Turkey to open an office there or assign a representative who is legally...more
10/19/2020
/ Advertising ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Evidence ,
FCC ,
France ,
Free Speech ,
Harvard Law School ,
Right to Privacy ,
Social Media ,
Social Media Policy ,
Trump Administration ,
Turkey ,
YouTube
In a purported attempt to safeguard free speech, President Trump has issued an order “Preventing Online Censorship,” that would eliminate the protections afforded by one of our favorite topics here at Socially Aware, Section...more
A federal district court in Illinois allowed claims for vicarious and direct copyright infringement to proceed against an employee of the Chicago Cubs Baseball Club for retweeting a third-party tweet containing the...more
A new law in Australia makes a social media company’s failure to remove “abhorrent violent material” from its platform punishable by significant fines. The law also states that the executives at social media companies who...more
Commercializing user-Generated Content: Five risk reduction strategies -
We’re in the midst of a seismic shift in how companies interact with user-generated content (UGC).
For years, companies were happy simply to...more
We’re in the midst of a seismic shift in how companies interact with user-generated content (UGC).
For years, companies were happy simply to host UGC on their websites, blogs and social media pages and reap the resulting...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 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
Five social media law issues to discuss with your clients -
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...more
10/15/2015
/ Anonymity ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Blogging Platforms ,
Browsewrap Agreement ,
Class Action ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Customer Lists ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Defamation ,
Discovery ,
Discrimination ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employee Training ,
Enforceability ,
EULA ,
Evidence ,
Facebook ,
Facebook Friends ,
False Advertising ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Internal Investigations ,
Job Applicants ,
Mobile Apps ,
Motion to Compel ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Online Endorsements ,
Online Reviews ,
Passwords ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Popular ,
Privacy Policy ,
Protected Class ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
RadioShack ,
Representations and Warranties ,
Screening Procedures ,
Section 5 ,
Social Media ,
Social Media Account Ownership ,
Social Media Policy ,
Subpoenas ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Terms of Use ,
Third-Party ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Workplace Investigations
In This Issue:
- Good Rep: Social Media Assets in M&A Transactions
- Narrow Vision: Did Anti-Glass Hysteria Contribute to the Demise of Google Glass?
- Forced to Cyber-Spy: Court Rules Parents Can Be Held...more
2/6/2015
/ Business Assets ,
Cloud Computing ,
Contract Negotiations ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Google Glass ,
Intangible Property ,
Minors ,
Social Media ,
Social Networks
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