Topic: General

Social Media, Age, and the Entertainment Industry

By Susan Ross (US) on March 14, 2017 Posted in General

Can a state law prevent a social media site from publicly posting accurate age information about individuals in the entertainment industry—even if that information is posted by users? The California legislature and Governor believed it was permissible, and the legislation went onto effect on September 24, 2016 (Cal. AB 1687, adding Cal. Civ. § 1798.83.5). … Continue reading

Tort claims may be adapting to a world of social media

By Caleb Segrest (US) on February 17, 2017 Posted in General

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled, on January 18, 2017, on a defendant’s motion to dismiss replevin, conversion, and trespass claims related to the misuse of various domain names and social media accounts. Salonclick LLC d/b/a Min New York , 16 Civ. 2555 (KMW), 2017 WL 239379 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. … Continue reading

FDA Proposes New Research on Social Media Promotion of Prescription Drugs

By Chandler Stephens (US) on December 22, 2016 Posted in General

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) regulates the use of social media to disseminate information about prescription drugs and medical devices. Our blog previously covered the social media guidance released by the FDA in 2014, and a sampling of Warning and Untitled Letters that the FDA has issued to drug manufacturers advertising on Twitter, … Continue reading

Who paid you to post that? Truth and Transparency in International Advertising

By NRF Digital Team on December 5, 2016 Posted in General

Social media personalities who have tweeted, grammed, Vine’d and snapped their way to stardom have no doubt caught the attention of businesses large and small. Much like how professional athletes and other celebrities are paid to endorse products, businesses and retailers have increasingly turned to recognized social media personalities (often called “influencers”) to recommend their … Continue reading

Artificial Intelligence and Social Networks

By Maya Medeiros on November 3, 2016 Posted in General

What is Artificial Intelligence? Artificial intelligence (“AI”) or cognitive computing involves the use of computer program code to control machines to mimic cognitive functions, such as learning, classification, and problem solving. AI is a technical field of computer science and includes machine learning and natural language processing.… Continue reading

You’re Uninvited: Managing Unauthorized Third Party Access

By Jeff Pettit (US) on October 26, 2016 Posted in General, Privacy

Most people would not bring along a group of uninvited strangers to a dinner party or, even worse, a wedding. Society has certain expectations around attendance, guest lists, RSVPs, and the like. And yet, in the digital realm, these social norms may not have the same effect. What can be done about digital party crashers? … Continue reading

Twitter Update: Go get your business account verified (…if you haven’t already)

By NRF Digital Team on September 8, 2016 Posted in General

In an earlier blog post this year, we covered Authentication on Social Media Platforms and the need for businesses to authenticate their social media accounts to protect their brand, credibility, reputation and accountability while advertising or otherwise engaging with their customers in the online space. Various social media platforms offer the blue “verified” badge in … Continue reading

Did Twitter violate Anti-Terrorism Act by providing ISIS accounts?

By Caleb Segrest (US) on August 23, 2016 Posted in General, Litigation

On August 10, 2016, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, in Fields v. Twitter, Inc., dismissed the plaintiffs’ complaint against Twitter with leave to amend. The plaintiffs’ complaint arose out of the deaths of Lloyd Fields, Jr. and James Damon Creach, two United States government contractors who were working at … Continue reading

In case you missed it – ICYMI

By Susan Ross (US) and Nerushka Bowan on August 16, 2016 Posted in General

The digital world moves fast. To get you up to speed, we have compiled a quarterly recap of our five most popular social media blog posts from the Social Media Law Bulletin and the post that is currently trending. From questions ranging from “Is my SnapChat really deleted?” to “Can I tell my employee to … Continue reading

Recent changes to advertising on social media platforms

By NRF Digital Team on July 1, 2016 Posted in General

With millions of people walking around with their heads down on their phones, it’s no surprise that mobile advertising on social media platforms has experienced significant growth in the past 12 months. Social media platforms have been continuing to develop ad capabilities to maximize offerings for brands and growth in the social media marketing space … Continue reading

Instant Fame and the FTC Endorsement Guides

By Jeff Pettit (US) on June 30, 2016 Posted in General

Native advertising—or advertising that appears to match the form and function of the platform upon which it appears—and social media endorsements provide considerable opportunities for companies to strengthen their brands and reach consumers in innovative ways. More and more, “influencers” like Instagram “models,” fashion and lifestyle bloggers, “pinners,” and “vloggers” are joining the ranks of … Continue reading

Is my SnapChat really deleted?

By Nerushka Bowan on May 16, 2016 Posted in General

Yes and no. SnapChat automatically deletes most messages after they have been opened or expired. However, it warns users that the recipient may take a screenshot or use some other screen capture technology (or simply take a photo of their screen with another camera). Our long-time readers may recall that SnapChat entered into settlement agreements … Continue reading

Socially responsible advertising

By Sinal Govender (SA) on May 6, 2016 Posted in General

On April 6, 2016, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority considered a complaint made against Guccio Gucci SpA regarding a video, which originally appeared on the website at www.thetimes.co.uk. The advert featured several models dancing in a house, clothed in the apparel of the global fashion brand, and the complaint centred around the physical appearance of … Continue reading

Rise of the social media bots

By Mayura Noordyke (US) on May 4, 2016 Posted in Fraud, General

As we discussed in a recent post, “Social media overload”, social media has grown exponentially over the past decade and has caused businesses to change how they operate and how they make decisions. Social media has quickly become one of the most important marketing platforms, providing a convenient way for companies to reach broad audiences.… Continue reading

Adding to Glossary of Social Media Terms

By on May 3, 2016 Posted in General

We have several new readers to our blog, and we want make sure everyone is aware of our features that not only include blog posts, but also several glossaries. One of our glossaries to help our readers understand what the Marketing and Promotions employees have already discovered is our Glossary of Terms. Here are some … Continue reading

Social media overload

By Daniel Daniele (CA) on April 19, 2016 Posted in Defamation, General, Social media policies

The explosion of social media in the past decade has caused a major shift in the way we conduct our affairs. In particular, businesses have been required to adapt to new ways of communicating with their clients. At a rate of thousands of social media applications surfacing each month, and new legal issues surrounding the … Continue reading

Crowdfunding: Advertising an offering’s terms on social media

By Caleb Segrest (US) on March 22, 2016 Posted in General

Background The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted the final rules of Regulation Crowdfunding (the “Regulation”) on October 30, 2015. While the final rules have been adopted, they do not become effective until May 16, 2016. The Regulation is meant to expound upon Sections 4(a)(6) and 4A of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Act”), … Continue reading

Social media stars and IP empires

By Maya Medeiros on March 14, 2016 Posted in Copyright, General, Social media policies

Social media platforms enable users to profit from their brand and original works such as photos, videos, articles and various “mash ups”. Their brand and content may be protected by trademarks and copyrights and users may generate thousands of postings to build an extensive intellectual property portfolio. A user may develop a popular brand for … Continue reading

Social Listening – Are You Ready?

By Mayura Noordyke (US) on February 16, 2016 Posted in General, Privacy

One of the keys to a successful social media presence for businesses is real-time engagement and quick response times. “Social listening” can help businesses tap into consumer sentiment in order to engage with their audience effectively and to elevate their brands. What is social listening? Social listening constitutes tracking conversations on social media that mention … Continue reading

We’re back, with our top five social media stories of 2015

By Susan Ross (US), Nerushka Bowan and Mayura Noordyke (US) on February 3, 2016 Posted in Copyright, Defamation, Employment and labor, Fraud, General, Privacy, Security

The Social Media Law Bulletin is back! The ongoing interest of our readers as well as the increasing impact of social media led us to re-launch the Social Media Law Bulletin. We will be bringing you coverage of one or two items approximately each week, but in the meantime, we thought we would give you … Continue reading

To our Social Media Law Bulletin subscribers

By Susan Ross (US) on March 6, 2015 Posted in General

Our Social Media Law Bulletin team has been contributing articles on legal issues in social media since 2012. The blog has gained a reputation for timely and substantive content. We appreciate your interest and the topical discussions that have resulted from the blog. As of March 6, 2015, however, the social media blog will become … Continue reading

Who owns your Instagram content?

By Nerushka Bowan on January 28, 2015 Posted in Copyright, General

You do (at least as between you and Instagram—your employer may have ownership rights in certain situations)! Instagram does not claim ownership of any content that you post. You do grant Instagram very broad license rights: a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use content that you post. This license grant means … Continue reading