Tag archives: Facebook

Telemedicine ads limited by Facebook

Photo of Kate Nelson (US)By Kate Nelson (US) on Posted in General, Social media policies
As the telemedicine industry continues to grow, especially in light of COVID-19, businesses should reconsider their policies and procedures in connection with telehealth services and user safety. Notably, Facebook recently responded to the growing use of telemedicine by amending its policies with respect to advertisements by telemedicine companies for prescription drugs. The new policy, which … Continue reading

Social media: life after death?

Photo of Kerri Gevers (SG)By Kerri Gevers (SG) on Posted in General
Have you considered what you would like to happen to your social media accounts when you die? Where the platform gives you options, have you selected one? A while ago we wrote about what happens to your social media account when you die. Many platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn have different policies about … Continue reading

How to use social media – and the consequences if you step out of line

Photo of Sinal Govender (SA)Photo of Lovanya MoodleyBy Sinal Govender (SA) and Lovanya Moodley on Posted in Employment and labor, Social media policies
In South Africa, employees are under the mistaken belief that what they do in their time away from the office, specifically on social media, is private and beyond the reach of their employer’s control. They fail to consider that they could face disciplinary action for their online rants and comments. This could be fatal to … Continue reading

Private social media posts can get you kicked out of university and worse

Photo of Sinal Govender (SA)By Sinal Govender (SA) on Posted in Employment and labor
Each year Harvard University, one of the world’s most prestigious universities, receives over 30,000 applications from prospective students for about 2,000 places in its first year class. Recently, ten of those successful applicants, due to graduate in 2021, had their offers of admission revoked before they set foot onto campus.  The reason?  The content of … Continue reading

Germany considers € 50 million fines for social media sites failing to remove hate speech

Photo of Sven Jacobs (DE)By Sven Jacobs (DE) on Posted in Defamation
The German Justice Ministry has introduced a draft law that would impose fines of up to €50 million on social media companies that fail to remove hate speech and other illegal content from their platforms quickly. The fines would be imposed whenever social media companies do not remove online threats, hate speech, or slanderous fake … Continue reading

Who is Fact Checking the Fact Checkers?

Photo of Daniel Daniele (CA)By Daniel Daniele (CA) on Posted in Defamation, Privacy
With the proliferation of so-called “fake news”, companies are starting to rely on third party organizations to perform a “fact checking” function in order to distinguish between legitimate news and fake news. The fake news epidemic gained traction in the recent US presidential election.  We have previously written about the fake news problem, as well … Continue reading

Facebook’s California Choice-of-Law Provision Rules the Day

Photo of Sean Topping (US)By Sean Topping (US) on Posted in Litigation
On January 9, 2017, the Northern District of California granted Facebook’s motion to dismiss for claims brought under New Jersey’s Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty, and Notice Act (“the TCCWNA”). In Palomino v. Facebook, Inc., a putative class of New Jersey residents challenged Facebook’s Terms of Service, which, among other provisions, require users to waive potential claims … Continue reading

Fact Or Fiction: The Fake News Problem

Photo of Mayura Noordyke (US)By Mayura Noordyke (US) on Posted in Defamation
In the few months leading up to the United States election, social media was flooded with articles with sensationalized titles and incendiary content. Many of these “news” stories were fake. They were written for the purpose of swaying public opinion or generating a profit from ad revenue and were often published by sham entities or … Continue reading

Serving up lawsuits via Facebook: social media provides creative solution under Federal Rules

Photo of Chandler Stephens (US)By Chandler Stephens (US) on Posted in Litigation
Service of process on a foreign defendant can be a major headache for U.S. plaintiffs, but social media is proving to be a creative solution when traditional methods have been demonstrated to fail. We previously covered a New York federal court’s ruling that permitted the Federal Trade Commission to serve the Indian defendants, operating under … Continue reading

Are your social media followers/fans/members authentic?

Photo of Susan Ross (US)By Susan Ross (US) on Posted in Fraud
We have previously written on social media account verification for businesses, in order to help customers deal only with the authentic brand.  But what about authenticating your social media followers/users/fans/members? Unfortunately, there are currently “no methodologies available that would provide us with an exact number of non-actual member types of accounts,” according to LinkedIn’s 10-K … Continue reading

What’s In Your Terms of Service?

Photo of Daniel Daniele (CA)By Daniel Daniele (CA) on Posted in Litigation
Social media platforms often require users to agree to Terms of Service or Terms of Use (“TOS”) to use the platform. These contracts can be lengthy and many social media users may not read them in their entirety before agreeing and proceeding to use the platform. This can raise particular issues in contract law, especially … Continue reading

Social Media Property Rights

Photo of Erik Janitens (US)By Erik Janitens (US) on Posted in General
The number of people using social media these days is staggering. For instance, Facebook has 1.65 billion monthly active users as of March 31, 2016. As such, the ability to reach such a broad consumer base through social media is becoming increasingly important to businesses. Companies are no doubt eager to create social media pages … Continue reading

Facebook wins privacy case on tracking logged-out users

Photo of Kerri Gevers (SG)By Kerri Gevers (SG) on Posted in Privacy
Facebook has won an appeal against a Belgian court ruling, which ordered it to stop tracking logged-out users who visit Facebook pages and other websites linked to Facebook. On 29 June 2016 the Brussels Court of Appeal held that the Belgian data protection authority (the Belgian Privacy Commission), which brought the original case, does not … Continue reading

German competition authorities initiate proceeding against Facebook

Photo of Sven Jacobs (DE)By Sven Jacobs (DE) on Posted in Privacy
Facebook became the latest American technology company to face antitrust hurdles in Europe after the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt), a competition authority, opened an investigation into whether Facebook Inc., USA, Facebook Ireland Limited and Facebook Germany GmbH abused their alleged dominant position in social networking by violating data protection laws. Accordingly, unlike other proceedings … Continue reading

Liability for friends’ defamatory statements

Photo of Brian Chau (CA)By Brian Chau (CA) on Posted in Defamation
Liability for third-party defamatory comments on one’s personal account, whether on Facebook or another internet-based platform, is an emerging legal issue in Canadian law. If a social media “friend” posts defamatory statements about another person on your profile, or other site, can you be personally liable to the defamed person? Do you have any obligation … Continue reading

Facebook “like” button violates privacy laws

Photo of Nerushka BowanPhoto of Tatum Govender (ZA)By Nerushka Bowan and Tatum Govender (ZA) on Posted in Privacy
On 9 March 2016 the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany ruled that an online shopping site, Peek & Cloppenburg, which integrated Facebook’s “like” button into its website had violated users’ privacy rights. How the “like” button works The button allows website users who click on it to share instantly the pages and content from the website on … Continue reading
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