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 04, 2020 - Privacy, Defamation, Section 230 Safe Harbor
FTC questions protections afforded tech platforms; LinkedIn was platform of choice for sellers of COVID-19 PPE; Appeals court passes on “retweet” propriety question
By: Julie O'Neill
Expressing concern about the spread of disinformation related to COVID-19, Federal Trade Commissioner Rohit Chopra said Congress may need “to reassess the special privileges afforded to tech platforms, especially given their vast power to curate and present content in ways that may manipulate users.”
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July 21, 2020 - Advertising, Litigation
Stretching the Bounds of Personal Jurisdiction, 4th Circuit Finds Geotargeted Advertising May Subject Foreign Website Owner to Personal Jurisdiction in the U.S.
By: J. Alexander Lawrence
Foreign websites that use geotargeted advertising may be subject to personal jurisdiction in the United States, even if they have no physical presence in the United States and do not specifically target their services to the United States, according to a new ruling from
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July 07, 2020 - Trademark, Cyberbullying, Marketing, Defamation, Section 230 Safe Harbor, Free Speech, Litigation
Debate over §230 of the CDA rages on; Twitter defeats defamation suit; Booking.com held valid trademark
By: Anthony M. Ramirez
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
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July 01, 2020 - Social Media Policy, Employment Law
A Strong Social Media Policy Can Protect Your Brand and Avoid Embarrassing Posts
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
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June 23, 2020 - Terms of Use, Online Contracts, Arbitration, Litigation
Sweating the Details: Court Analyzes User Interface to Uphold Online Arbitration Clause
By: Aaron P. Rubin
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
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June 16, 2020 - European Union, GDPR, Privacy
Tell A Friend – But Only With Your Friend’s Consent
By: Alex van der Wolk and Marijn Storm
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
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June 10, 2020 - FTC, COPPA
It’s 10 p.m. Do You Know What Your Third-Party Integrations Are Doing?
By: Julie O'Neill
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
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June 09, 2020 - European Union
Digital Compliance in Europe: Regulatory Alignment Post-Brexit
By: Alistair Maughan and Mercedes Samavi
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
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June 04, 2020 - Trademark, Web Scraping, Copyright, IP
Webscraping a Publicly Available Database May Constitute Trade Secret Misappropriation
By: J. Alexander Lawrence
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
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June 01, 2020 - Contracts, Terms of Use, Online Contracts
Court Discovers Rare and Elusive “Enforceable Browsewrap”
By: Aaron P. Rubin
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”
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Welcome to Socially Aware

FTC questions protections afforded tech platforms; LinkedIn was platform of choice for sellers of COVID-19 PPE; Appeals court passes on “retweet” propriety question

By: Julie O'Neill

Stretching the Bounds of Personal Jurisdiction, 4th Circuit Finds Geotargeted Advertising May Subject Foreign Website Owner to Personal Jurisdiction in the U.S.

By: J. Alexander Lawrence

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

By: Anthony M. Ramirez

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

By: Aaron P. Rubin

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

By: Alex van der Wolk and Marijn Storm

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

By: Julie O'Neill

Digital Compliance in Europe: Regulatory Alignment Post-Brexit

By: Alistair Maughan and Mercedes Samavi

Webscraping a Publicly Available Database May Constitute Trade Secret Misappropriation

By: J. Alexander Lawrence

Court Discovers Rare and Elusive “Enforceable Browsewrap”

By: Aaron P. Rubin