California’s attempt to impose content moderation transparency requirements on social media platforms has suffered a significant setback. Last month, the state reached a settlement with X Corp. (formerly Twitter), effectively…
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/ Administrative Law, Communications & Media Law, Constitutional Law
If you want the perfect illustration of the high-stakes world of tech acquisition, look no further than the mad scramble for TikTok. Alexis Ohanian, Reddit’s wunderkind co-founder, has joined Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty bid…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Mergers & Acquisitions, Privacy
A groundbreaking law in Utah is poised to shake up how minors access apps. Earlier this month, Utah’s state legislature passed S.B. 142 (App Store Accountability Act), which requires major app store providers to verify users’…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Science, Computers, & Technology
Looks like WhatsApp just leveled up—whether it wanted to or not. Meta’s messaging giant has officially been crowned a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which basically…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Science, Computers, & Technology
Social media safety is very much in the news these days, with policymakers unleashing a torrent of legislation to protect children online, such as age verification measures, parental consent mandates, data privacy requirements,…
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/ Civil Remedies, Communications & Media Law
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a case that sought to hold Facebook parent company Meta liable for the 2015 mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Constitutional Law, Science, Computers, & Technology
The year 2025 is certain to be a watershed for social media legislation and litigation. As it continues to shape how we connect, share, and consume information, social media remains at the forefront of public discourse due to…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Constitutional Law, Privacy
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 app…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Constitutional Law, Privacy
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 that…
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/ Art, Entertainment, & Sports Law, Civil Procedure, Communications & Media Law, Science, Computers, & Technology
As the world’s premier blog and go-to source for insightful, pithy commentary on the law and business of social media (EDITOR’S NOTE: this claim has not been verified), the team at Socially Aware feels socially responsible to…
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/ Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Intellectual Property, Science, Computers, & Technology
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 the…
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/ Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Intellectual Property, Science, Computers, & Technology
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 blocking…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Science, Computers, & Technology
The Federal Trade Commission’s new rules banning phony online reviews are now in effect. These rules aim to curb false consumer testimonials, the buying of fake reviews from brokers, review suppression, falsifying social media…
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/ Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Bankruptcy, Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Science, Computers, & Technology
On September 25, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued its decision in Toth v. Everly Well, Inc. Socially Aware spoke to Lawrence Gallick (of counsel in Morrison Foerster’s Austin office) about the case…
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/ Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Commercial Law & Contracts, Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection
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 legislation…
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/ Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Communications & Media Law, Privacy, Science, Computers, & Technology
