Social media sites are transforming not only the daily lives of consumers, but also how companies interact with consumers. Here at Morrison Foerster, across all of our practice groups, we are seeing complex, cutting-edge legal issues arising out of social media. As with the Internet boom during the mid-to-late 1990s, social media is generating new legal questions at a far faster pace than the law’s ability to provide answers to such questions. In an effort to stay on top of these emerging issues, and to keep our clients and friends informed of new developments, Morrison Foerster publishes this blog devoted to the law and business of social media.<h2>ABOUT MORRISON FOERSTER</h2>Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm that transforms complexity into advantage for its clients. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, banks, consulting and accounting firms, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to client service, leadership in market-changing deals and impact litigation, and values-based culture, Morrison Foerster has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 10 firms on The American Lawyer’s A-List. Year after year, the firm receives significant recognition from Chambers and The Legal 500 across their various guides, including Global, USA, Asia‑Pacific, Europe, UK, Latin America, and FinTech Legal. Our lawyers passionately care about delivering legal excellence while living our values. Morrison Foerster has a long-standing commitment to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment. The firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus since 2018 as a result of successfully reaching at least 30 percent women, communities of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community and society through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education and fostering the wellbeing of children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, enforcing the right to asylum, and safeguarding the environment.

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Aaron is the chair of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group and co-chair of the Interactive + Digital Media Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals.Aaron’s practice focuses on advising both established and emerging companies in a variety of data- and technology-intensive sectors, including software, SaaS, cloud-based technology, digital media (social media, AR/VR, gaming, streaming media, AdTech), AI, healthcare, consumer electronics, e-commerce, other online business models, and mobile applications. He also maintains an active practice counseling companies on branding and marketing, trademark licensing, and content-related transactions, as well as the intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin-offs, and private equity investments.He has represented clients such as Autodesk, Meta, OpenAI, Splunk, Konami, Kaiser Permanente, SoftBank, Visa, and Yahoo, among others.Aaron has been recognized by numerous publications for his work on market-defining technology transactions. He is currently ranked by Chambers USA for “Technology Transactions.”Aaron also serves as co-editor of Socially Aware, the firm’s award-winning newsletter and blog devoted to the law and business of social media, and regularly publishes on various IP and technology-related topics. Aaron is also a sought-after speaker on new and emerging areas of law, and is a frequent presenter and panelist at conferences and legal services programs. In addition to his active practice, Aaron regularly provides pro bono assistance to various nonprofit and charitable organizations such as Common Sense Media and the Starlight Children’s Foundation. He is a member of the board of directors of California Lawyers for the Arts.While in law school at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, Aaron served as executive editor of the California Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, Aaron served as law clerk to the Honorable William H. Orrick and the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins, both United States District Judges for the Northern District of California.

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Aaron is the chair of our Technology Transactions Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals. Aaron’s practice focuses on advising both established and emerging companies in a variety of data– and technology–intensive sectors, including software, SaaS, cloud computing, AR/VR, AI, gaming, healthcare, consumer electronics, social media, e–commerce, other online business models, and mobile applications. He also maintains an active practice counseling companies on the intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin–offs, and private equity investments.

Aaron P. Rubin

Lawrence Gallick is of counsel in the firm’s Austin office and a member of the Technology Transactions Group.Lawrence focuses his practice on technology transactions and licensing matters. His diverse experience includes advising on SaaS agreements, cross-licensing agreements, research and collaboration agreements, development agreements, and distribution agreements. He counsels a broad range of companies across the software, hardware, life sciences, biotech and FinTech spaces, as well as other entities including universities.He advises clients in connection with general corporate matters including contract negotiations, and leasing and technology placement agreements.Lawrence also serves as co-editor of <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/" target="_blank">Socially Aware</a>, the firm’s award-winning newsletter and blog devoted to the law and business of social media, and regularly publishes on various IP and technology-related topics.Prior to joining the firm, Lawrence was counsel at another major law firm. Before earning his law degree, Lawrence was a web consultant, project manager, and web developer in Portland, Oregon, where he managed and consulted on projects using industry methodologies and performed custom development and integration of content management systems.Lawrence was named a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in 2015 and 2018–2022, and is licensed in both California and New York. Lawrence earned his J.D. from the University at Buffalo School of Law, where he was the electronic systems editor for the Buffalo Law Review and awarded the ABA-BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Intellectual Property Law.

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Lawrence Gallick

Anthony Ramirez is a partner in the Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster.Anthony advises clients on general commercial and transactional matters. He regularly advises companies on the IP aspects of their M&A transactions. His clients include technology, digital media and content for television and music, financial services, and communications companies with diverse intellectual property assets and issues.His practice focuses on the legal aspects of developing, licensing, and commercializing technology and intellectual property, as well as negotiating general commercial contracts, including outsourcing transactions, as well as content and data licenses. He regularly assists clients with legal issues relating to licensing and commercialization of digital media and content, digital content that is distributed over the Internet or streamed, mobile applications and social media, as well as the licensing of recorded music for distribution via digital platforms. Anthony is also experienced with issues relating to open-source software, software development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud-based technology, and protection of proprietary information.Anthony has extensive experience working on matters involving disruptive technologies, such as blockchain. He has helped fintech clients with general intellectual property issues in connection with terms of service for online financial products and services.Anthony is an integral part of the outside pro bono legal team for nonprofit organizations based in New York, including advising clients on legal issues regarding entertainment, social media, privacy rights, and the negotiation of outsourcing and service agreements. Anthony received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2009. He received his B.S. from Cornell University in 2004.

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Anthony Ramirez is a partner in the Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster. He advises clients on general commercial and transactional matters. His clients include technology, media, and communications companies with considerable intellectual property assets. His practice focuses on the legal aspects of licensing and commercializing technology and intellectual property, as well as negotiating general commercial contracts. He also regularly assists clients with legal issues relating to mobile applications and social media.

Anthony M. Ramirez

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Over the past two years, Socially Aware has revisited Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines from time to time — even as recently as August 2011 — to help keep our re

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Running Contests and Sweepstakes on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter: How the Rules Stack Up

Running Contests and Sweepstakes on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter: How the Rules Stack Up | Socially Aware

Seth M. Graham

Over the past two years, Socially Aware has revisited Facebook’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php">Promotions Guidelines</a> from time to time — even as recently as August 2011 — to help keep our readers up-to-date on how popular social media platforms seek to regulate contests, sweepstakes and other promotions.Online promotions are as popular as ever, and given that two-thirds of American adults now use some type of social media platform, we decided to take a broader, comparative look at the promotions guidelines of three major social networks — Facebook, Google+ and Twitter — to give our readers a sense of how these guidelines stack up.A social network’s terms and conditions governing promotions are typically a mix of rules, restrictions and best-practices suggestions that can be difficult to navigate.  Equally tough to digest are the dozens of “how to” websites that purport to instruct social media users how to conduct successful (and legal) promotions online, and the numerous companion sites that advertise social media promotions to anyone who wishes to join.  What’s more, social media services’ promotions policies are updated and amended frequently, as we have noted previously, and they typically incorporate or are incorporated into other, far more general rules and restrictions that both protect the respective service providers and give those providers considerable latitude in accepting, rejecting, suspending or terminating promotions on their platforms.Here’s a quick look at where Facebook’s, Google+’s and Twitter’s promotions guidelines stand today:1.  Google+.  Let’s start with Google+, the newest social network on our list.  Google+ recently published its policies for contests and promotions.  Simply put, Google+ users are not permitted to run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions directly on their Google+ Pages; however, users are permitted to post links on their Google+ Pages to such users’ promotions on other sites, as long as they agree to be solely responsible for such promotions and for compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.  (In a sense, this approach mirrors Facebook’s rule, discussed in our August 2011 issue, on communicating about promotions:  “If you use Facebook to communicate about . . . a promotion, you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion.”)  Some have <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/08/google-wont-allow-contests-and-promotions-on-google-pages/">noted</a> that Google+’s restrictive promotions policies are somewhat counterintuitive in light of Google+’s recent launch of “<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/07/google-launches-pages-opens-floodgates-for-brands-and-everything-else/">Brand Pages</a>,” which finally enable brands, products, companies, businesses, places, groups, and everyone else to establish branded presences on the fledgling service.User promotions that are linked from users’ Google+ Pages are required to adhere to a variety of other Google+ terms and conditions, including the <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/pagesterm.html">Google+ Pages Additional Terms of Service</a>.  Those terms incorporate by reference even more Google+ terms and conditions, such as the <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/content.html">Google+ User Content and Conduct Policy</a>.  Google retains the right both to remove a user’s “Promotion content” from the user’s Google+ Page for any reason and to block or remove Pages that violate Google+’s Pages terms (and even, in the case of repeat violations of the Pages terms, to suspend the user’s Google+ account).One other interesting point:  For now, according to the Google+ Pages Additional Terms of Service, “[e]xcept as otherwise required by the Google+ Pages Terms, you may not include terms, conditions or non-Google provided technical restrictions on Google+ Pages.”  This implies that, even though a user is permitted to link to the user’s promotion from his or her Google+ Page, the user is not permitted to include on the Page any “terms” or “conditions” governing the promotion — let alone the promotion’s “Official Rules.”2.  Twitter.  In contrast to Google+’s prohibitive policies, Twitter specifically permits users to operate promotions on its platform.  In fact, Twitter’s <a href="http://support.twitter.com/articles/68877-guidelines-for-contests-on-twitter">Guidelines for Contests on Twitter</a> (the “Twitter Guidelines,” which despite their name, govern both contests and sweepstakes) take a different approach from other platforms’ promotions terms, as they read more like a set of suggestions that promotions operators are encouraged to follow in order to generally enhance the Twitter user experience and to steer entrants clear of violating other Twitter rules.  (Unlike the promotions guidelines for Google+ and Facebook, the Twitter Guidelines do not distinguish between promotions “run on” Twitter and those merely advertised on or promoted using Twitter; the guidelines simply govern any contests and sweepstakes “on Twitter,” for example, offering prizes for Tweeting updates, following a particular user or posting updates with a specific hashtag.)As an example, the Twitter Guidelines admonish users to discourage the creation of multiple accounts (which could lead to account suspension under “<a href="https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules">The Twitter Rules</a>”) by “be[ing] sure to” impose a rule that users will be ineligible if they create multiple accounts to enter a promotion more than once.  The Twitter Guidelines also note that users “might want to set a clear contest rule” that multiple entries from a given entrant in a single day will not be accepted, in order to help discourage posting of the same Tweet repeatedly (e.g., “whoever re-Tweets the most wins”).3.  Facebook.  While Google+’s promotions guidelines flatly prohibit onsite promotions and instead focus on how users can communicate about their offsite promotions, and Twitter’s guidelines do not distinguish clearly between operating and communicating about promotions on Twitter, Facebook’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php">Promotions Guidelines</a> squarely address both communicating about and operating promotions on Facebook.Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines get into plenty of detail on how promotion operators can and cannot use Facebook and its many features to operate promotions.  A few highlights:<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Promotions operated on Facebook must be administered using Apps on Facebook, Facebook’s development tools for app builders, both to ensure interoperability with Facebook’s platform and to enable Facebook to advertise to users of the app.</li><li>Promotions operators are required to make certain mandatory disclosures, including (i) a complete release of Facebook by each entrant, (ii) an acknowledgement that the promotion is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by Facebook, and (iii) that the entrant is providing information to the promotions operator only and not to Facebook.  (Neither Google+ nor Twitter requires disclosures such as these, although Google+’s promotions terms include broad language releasing Google from liability for users’ promotions and requiring users to indemnify Google from claims and losses arising from such promotions, and Twitter’s general terms simply disclaim any liability for Twitter’s use of content provided by Twitter users.)</li><li>Facebook features and functionality cannot be used (i) as a way to register for or enter a promotion (e.g., “Liking” a Facebook Page cannot constitute an entry in a promotion), (ii) as a prerequisite to participating in a promotion (although promotion operators are permitted to require users to Like a Page, check into a Place, or connect to the operator’s page in order to enter a promotion), (iii) as a promotion voting mechanism, or (iv) to notify promotion winners (e.g., through messages, chat, or posts on profiles or pages).  This is an interesting contrast to the Twitter Guidelines, which imply that Twitter is comfortable with the use of a wide range of Twitter features in connection with Twitter-based promotions.</li></ul><div style="text-align: left;">Conclusions.  The promotions guidelines promulgated by Facebook, Google and Twitter reveal a few common threads.  Each service seems to be concerned with protecting its community members, for example, by restricting the creation of false accounts, by prohibiting the publication of misleading or false information or by limiting the collection and use of personal information by promotions operators for purposes other than the promotion itself.  Similarly, each service’s guidelines require promotion operators to take certain actions to ensure that their promotions do not interfere with, and are otherwise compatible with, the general functioning of the service.  Finally, each provider has put measures in place to shield itself from the legal complications arising from operating or communicating about promotions on its service — in at least one case (Google+), by prohibiting the operation of promotions outright.</div>Moreover, keep in mind that a social media site’s promotions guidelines are only part — typically, a very small part — of the universe of terms and conditions that bind promotions operators.  Each service described in this article requires compliance with various other sites-pecific policies, terms and conditions, which often further restrict how promotions can be run or advertised.  Google+’s promotions guidelines link to three other Google+ policies, each of which links to several other policies that impose additional restrictions, for example, the Google+ Pages Additional Terms of Service’s prohibition on posting content that violates third-party rights or content that is considered inappropriate under yet another policy, the <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/content.html">Google+ User Content and Conduct Policy</a>.  Similarly, Twitter requires all promotions operators to comply with <a href="https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules">The Twitter Rules</a> and Twitter’s <a href="http://support.twitter.com/articles/42646-twitter-search-best-practices">search best practices</a> before commencing a promotion, and Facebook supplements its Promotions Guidelines by requiring promoters to comply with Facebook’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms">Statement of Rights and Responsibilities</a> (which, as we have noted previously, incorporate many other Facebook policies), its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php">Ad Guidelines</a>, and its <a href="https://developers.facebook.com/policy/">Platform Policies</a>.  And bear in mind that all of these policies, rules and guidelines change over time.The complexity of social media services’ various promotions guidelines, rules and best practices means that any would-be promotions operator needs to carefully review — and monitor over time — each service’s terms, particularly when a promotion is designed to leverage multiple social media services simultaneously.  First-time social media promotions operators in particular may want to seek legal guidance, both in understanding each target service’s terms and in helping to craft a set of “Official Rules” that can help the operator manage risk and maximize the chances of running a successful social media promotion.