Welcome to Socially Aware

Socially Aware is devoted to the law and business of social media, proactively addressing emerging issues and keeping our clients informed of new developments. We cover fields such as artificial intelligence, privacy and data security, Section 230, intellectual property, and much more.

August 23, 2024 - Copyright, Defamation, E-Commerce, Fraud, FTC, Online Reviews, Privacy, Social Media Policy, Trademark, Web Scraping
Social Links: Recent Developments in the Law and Business of Social Media
By: Lawrence W. Gallick, Anthony M. Ramirez and Aaron P. Rubin
The Federal Trade Commission has finalized a new rule aimed at curtailing false, misleading, and otherwise fraudulent reviews on online retail sites. Fake reviews are a significant problem for the big e-commerce platforms, given that a robust customer review system is crucial to modern
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August 16, 2024 - Advertising, Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, Fair Use, First Amendment, Fraud, SEC, Section 230 Safe Harbor
Social Links: August 2024
By: Lawrence W. Gallick, Anthony M. Ramirez and Aaron P. Rubin
Social media giant TikTok has been sued by the United States for allegedly collecting data on children under thirteen illegally. The suit claims the app, which is owned by China-based parent company ByteDance, allowed millions of children to create accounts without parental knowledge or
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August 05, 2024 - Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, First Amendment, Fraud, FTC, IP, Privacy, Section 230 Safe Harbor, Social Media Policy
Social Links: July 2024
By: Lawrence W. Gallick, Anthony M. Ramirez and Aaron P. Rubin
In a rare example of bipartisan agreement, the dramatically named DEFIANCE (Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits) Act unanimously passed the Senate. The bill allows victims of AI-generated deepfake pornography to sue anyone who knowingly creates, receives, or distributes such images. It only
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July 23, 2024 - Free Speech, Social Media Policy, Privacy
State Social Media Laws Targeted at Teens Face Opposition
By: Lawrence W. Gallick and Lindsay B. Harris
A few months ago, we highlighted the many pending and enacted state-level social media laws targeting minors’ use of social media. Since then, political and industry groups have begun to push back, calling into question whether these types of social media laws will ultimately
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June 04, 2024 - Contracts, Copyright, Fair Use, Social Media Policy, Terms of Use, User-Generated Content, Web Scraping
California Federal Court Holds X’s Claims Against Scraper Preempted by Federal Law
By: Lawrence W. Gallick and Aaron P. Rubin
On May 9, 2024, in X Corp. v. Bright Data Ltd. , the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed X’s claims alleging that Bright Data’s access to X’s systems, and scraping and selling of publicly available data from X’s platform,
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May 23, 2024 - Defamation, IP, Right of Publicity, Section 230 Safe Harbor, Social Media Policy
Part 4 – Section 230: 27 Years Old and Still in the Spotlight
By: Lawrence W. Gallick, Anthony M. Ramirez and Aaron P. Rubin
Section 230: 27 Years Old and Still in the Spotlight In our fourth installment of our six-part series examining Section 230—the segment of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) that immunizes online service providers from liability stemming from content created by third parties—we’ll examine
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May 20, 2024 - Advertising, Data Security, Privacy, Social Media Policy
State Lawmakers Introduce Laws Governing Teen Use of Social Media
By: Lawrence W. Gallick and Lindsay B. Harris
In case you haven’t noticed, state legislatures have been hard at work drafting, passing, and trying to pass laws that govern minors’ use of social media. Several states have passed laws requiring social media companies to implement certain policies, including age verification and parental
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April 03, 2024 - Artificial Intelligence, Section 230 Safe Harbor, Social Media Policy
Social Links: April 2024
By: Aaron P. Rubin, Anthony M. Ramirez and Lawrence W. Gallick
As we reported in 2023, Utah was the first state in the nation to enact laws limiting minors’ use of social media. In early March 2024, Republican Governor Spencer Cox effectively repealed and replaced the previously enacted legislation in an effort to fend off
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March 20, 2024 - Social Media Policy, First Amendment
Supreme Court Clarifies the Boundaries of Public Official Liability on Social Media
By: J. Alexander Lawrence and Justin Kareem Rezkalla
In its recent opinion in Lindke v. Freed , the U.S. Supreme Court addressed when public officials may be held liable for violating the First Amendment for silencing critics on social media. The Court held that a public official violates the First Amendment for
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March 14, 2024 - Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Patent, Trademark
Social Links: March 2024
By: Aaron P. Rubin, Anthony M. Ramirez and Lawrence W. Gallick
Conversations around AI continue to dominate the headlines in early 2024 and show no signs of abating anytime soon. Here are few of the stories and trends we’ve been tracking at Socially Aware. A deepfake technology scam cost a multinational company’s Hong Kong office
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Welcome to Socially Aware

Social Links: Recent Developments in the Law and Business of Social Media

By: Lawrence W. Gallick, Anthony M. Ramirez and Aaron P. Rubin

Social Links: August 2024

By: Lawrence W. Gallick, Anthony M. Ramirez and Aaron P. Rubin

Social Links: July 2024

By: Lawrence W. Gallick, Anthony M. Ramirez and Aaron P. Rubin

State Social Media Laws Targeted at Teens Face Opposition

By: Lawrence W. Gallick and Lindsay B. Harris

California Federal Court Holds X’s Claims Against Scraper Preempted by Federal Law

By: Lawrence W. Gallick and Aaron P. Rubin

Part 4 – Section 230: 27 Years Old and Still in the Spotlight

By: Lawrence W. Gallick, Anthony M. Ramirez and Aaron P. Rubin

State Lawmakers Introduce Laws Governing Teen Use of Social Media

By: Lawrence W. Gallick and Lindsay B. Harris

Social Links: April 2024

By: Aaron P. Rubin, Anthony M. Ramirez and Lawrence W. Gallick

Supreme Court Clarifies the Boundaries of Public Official Liability on Social Media

By: J. Alexander Lawrence and Justin Kareem Rezkalla

Social Links: March 2024

By: Aaron P. Rubin, Anthony M. Ramirez and Lawrence W. Gallick