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The Law and Business of Social Media

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Debate over §230 of the CDA rages on; Twitter defeats defamation suit; Booking.com held valid trademark

By Anthony M. Ramirez

July 7, 2020

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 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally protects online platforms from liability for content posted by third parties. President Trump issued the order after Twitter tagged some of his tweets as misleading and linked the tweets to text contradicting their…

Socially Aware Blog

A Strong Social Media Policy Can Protect Your Brand and Avoid Embarrassing Posts

By Lauren Hopkins

July 1, 2020

Eric Akira Tate spoke to TechRepublic about how businesses should think about establishing or updating corporate social media policies to account for the changing standards, especially as the U.S. is in the midst of a civil rights movement. “Reviewing social media policies so that there are no misunderstandings about what use of social media is acceptable or not for an employer is all the more appropriate to do now,” Eric said, adding that employers should have policies…

Socially Aware Blog

Sweating the Details: Court Analyzes User Interface to Uphold Online Arbitration Clause

By Aaron Rubin & Jill Meltem Tellioglu

June 23, 2020

Online service providers typically seek to mitigate risk by including arbitration clauses in their user agreements. In order for such agreements to be effective, however, they must be implemented properly. Babcock vs. Neutron Holdings, Inc., a recent Southern District of Florida case involving a plaintiff who was injured while riding one of the defendant’s Lime e-scooters, illustrates that courts will closely scrutinize the details of how an online contract is presented to users to…

Socially Aware Blog

Tell A Friend – But Only With Your Friend’s Consent

By Lauren Hopkins

June 16, 2020

Alex van der Wolk, Marijn Storm, and Ronan Tigner authored an article for the IAPP covering the Belgian Data Protection Authority’s challenge to the “tell-a-friend” function on social media websites that enables users to share content with their personal contacts. The DPA’s decision to fine social media platform Twoo for privacy violations of its tell-a-friend feature is important “because it makes non-users’ consent necessary for a platform to send emails or other communications…

Socially Aware Blog

It’s 10 p.m. Do You Know What Your Third-Party Integrations Are Doing?

By Cecillia X. Xie & Julie O'Neill

June 10, 2020

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, children are spending more of their lives in the digital realm, both for education and entertainment purposes—but that doesn’t mean the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is cutting online operators slack for not complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Last week, the FTC levied a $4 million penalty against HyperBeard, Inc., a popular mobile app developer, to settle allegations that HyperBeard integrated third-party ad networks…

Socially Aware Blog

Digital Compliance in Europe: Regulatory Alignment Post-Brexit

By Alistair Maughan & Mercedes Samavi

June 9, 2020

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the process of implementing Brexit continues. One of the key Brexit issues for the tech sector is the extent to which the UK will either align or diverge its digital regulations with the EU. Both the UK and EU have set out their intentions for their post-Brexit relationship in matters relating to technology, digital, and telecoms issues. There are signs that both the UK and EU will seek early alignment in…

Socially Aware Blog

Webscraping a Publicly Available Database May Constitute Trade Secret Misappropriation

By J. Alexander Lawrence & Lily Smith

June 4, 2020

Is scraping data from a publicly available website trade secret misappropriation? Based on a new opinion from the Eleventh Circuit, It might be. In Compulife Software, Inc. v. Newman, Compulife Software, a life insurance quote database service alleged that one of its competitors scraped millions of insurance quotes from its database and then sold the proprietary data themselves. Compulife brought a number of claims against its competitors, including misappropriation of trade secrets under Florida’s …

Socially Aware Blog

Court Discovers Rare and Elusive “Enforceable Browsewrap”

By Aaron Rubin & Jackie Li

June 1, 2020

As we have noted many times in prior articles, courts often refuse to enforce “browsewrap” agreements where terms are presented to users merely by including a link on a page or screen without requiring affirmative acceptance. Courts typically look more favorably on “clickwrap” agreements where users agree to be bound by, for example, checking a box or clicking an “I accept” button. The problem is that many implementations of online contracts do not fit…

Socially Aware Blog

Social Links: A report suggesting DMCA changes; a new social-media-use regulation for Fla. Bar members; big changes at Facebook

By Julie O'Neill

May 28, 2020

A new report from the U.S. Copyright Office suggests that Congress should fine-tune the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to, among other things, alter the takedown system that platforms must adhere to in order to be eligible for the safe harbor the DMCA affords to online platforms when third parties post infringing content. Read about the Copyright Office’s issues with the current takedown system. Malwarebytes, an online filtering company, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court …

Socially Aware Blog

Social Links: Online censorship in China; Florida legislation to thwart gang activity online; influencers criticized for breaking quarantine rules

By Aaron Rubin

May 8, 2020

China’s “internet police,” who coordinate online censorship, have become especially busy since the coronavirus outbreak. Inspired by homicides that were precipitated by social media posts created by one group of teenagers to incite another, a Florida bill would allow law enforcement to charge juveniles with a misdemeanor for posting photos of themselves with firearms online. In an effort to control the proliferation of “a broad range of online harms”—from cyberbullying to child exploitation—the…

Socially Aware Blog

The Law and Business of Social Media

Blog Authors

Debate over §230 of the CDA rages on; Twitter defeats defamation suit; Booking.com held valid trademark

A Strong Social Media Policy Can Protect Your Brand and Avoid Embarrassing Posts

Sweating the Details: Court Analyzes User Interface to Uphold Online Arbitration Clause

Tell A Friend – But Only With Your Friend’s Consent

It’s 10 p.m. Do You Know What Your Third-Party Integrations Are Doing?

Digital Compliance in Europe: Regulatory Alignment Post-Brexit

Webscraping a Publicly Available Database May Constitute Trade Secret Misappropriation

Court Discovers Rare and Elusive “Enforceable Browsewrap”

Social Links: A report suggesting DMCA changes; a new social-media-use regulation for Fla. Bar members; big changes at Facebook

Social Links: Online censorship in China; Florida legislation to thwart gang activity online; influencers criticized for breaking quarantine rules

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