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
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
With over one billion websites on the Internet, and 211 million items of online content created every minute, it should come as no surprise that content curation is one of the hottest trends in the Internet industry. We are...more
Dealmakers who responded to a recent Morrison & Foerster survey predicted that the market for M&A transactions in the technology sector will be even more robust in 2017 than it was in 2015 and 2016—years in which acquirers...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
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
2017 will be an even busier year than 2016 and 2015 for M&A deals in the technology sector, according to more than half of the dealmakers who responded to the semi-annual M&A Leaders Survey conducted by our colleagues at...more
Welcome to the newest edition of Socially Aware, our Burton Awardwinning guide to the law and business of social media.
In this edition, we explore the threat to U.S. jobs posed by rapid advances in emerging technologies;...more
4/21/2017
/ Communications Decency Act ,
Copyright ,
Cross-Device ,
DMCA ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Mobile Apps ,
Safe Harbors ,
Snapchat ,
Stored Communications Act ,
Technology Sector ,
Tracking Systems ,
Trump Administration ,
WhatsApp
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
For the third year in a row, Socially Aware co-editor Aaron Rubin and I attended SXSW Interactive, which arguably has become the premier annual gathering for the global tech community. But this year, SXSW Interactive had a...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
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
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)
Some industry observers are asking whether the post-inauguration tweets that President Trump is sending from his personal Twitter account may be subject to the same Presidential Records Act standards as official presidential...more
Donald Trump’s successful road to the White House was fueled by heated rhetoric against free trade deals and U.S. companies engaged in offshore outsourcing. Underpinning his slogan “Make America Great Again” was a premise...more
A federal district court judge refused to grant summary judgment to the copyright owners of the Star Trek franchise in the infringement suit they brought against the team behind a fan-made, crowdfunded prequel to the original...more
1/23/2017
/ Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
EU ,
Instagram ,
Internet ,
Mobile Apps ,
Personal Data ,
Snapchat ,
Sponsored Ads ,
Star Trek ,
Summary Judgment ,
Yelp
Every December and January you can count on the trade press and the mainstream media to run lists of predictions for the upcoming year and retrospectives on the year past ranking the “best” and “worst” of everything from...more
Last year we explained how companies could protect their social media currency and heed the FTC’s warning on native advertising. We examined court opinions establishing the criteria for enforceable website terms of use and...more
1/10/2017
/ Ad-Blockers ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Emoji ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Legal Ethics ,
Marketing ,
Native Advertising ,
Section 230 ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
Trolls ,
Websites
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 beginning of a new year is a time for resolutions and predictions. We won’t bother Socially Aware readers with our resolutions for 2017, but we thought that we would share some predictions for the new year from our...more
1/5/2017
/ Blockchain ,
Copyright ,
DMCA ,
EU ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FinTech ,
Infrastructure ,
Internet of Things ,
LabMD ,
Marketing ,
Patent Litigation ,
Section 230 ,
Social Media ,
Technology ,
Trump Administration