U.S. District Court Judge Alison J. Nathan denied a request by the Gawker group of interns, who filed a class action against Gawker for its unfair business practices, to disseminate notice of their class action through various social media outlets. The Gawker interns, led by plaintiffs, Aulister mark and Andrew Hudson, sought to post notices on Tumblr and Reddit, which could potentially reach individuals not connected to this Fair Labor Standards Act litigation. Judge Nathan stated that the plaintiffs’ request to use other social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn was also overbroad; when the court had originally approved the plaintiffs’ use of social media to reach potential class members, it understood the notice to be provided through private, personalized notification and messages to those individuals who may not be reachable. The court never contemplated the use of widespread public notices on all major social media. Judge Nathan said, “The proposals are substantially overbroad for the purposes of providing notice to potential opt-in plaintiffs, and much of plaintiffs’ plan appears calculated to punish defendants rather than provide notice of opt-in rights.” This sets an important precedent for other class action groups seeking to use social media for class notification purposes. While social media can be a useful tool in situation like this, the court will set a limit on its use.
