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Tag Archives: Twitter

The Diet Has Spoken: Japanese Lawmakers Approve Internet-Enabled Campaigning

By Gabriel Meister, Alexander Coley and Tomoki Kodama on Posted in Asia

In February 2013, we reported on legislative momentum in the Japanese Diet to bring Japan’s sixty-year-old election laws into the brave new world of Web 2.0. On April 19, 2013, that reform effort came to fruition, when a bill permitting the use of the Internet during election campaign periods passed both Houses of the legislature—just… Continue Reading

Stop Insider Tweeting!—Feds Eye Social Media for Securities Shenanigans

By Gary Stern on Posted in Financial Institutions, SEC, Securities Law

Article courtesy of Morrison & Foerster’s MoFo Tech As financial institutions and investors turn to social media to instantly share snippets of news and potential clues about market trends, the FBI and SEC are monitoring such postings for evidence of insider trading and improper investment information. Companies must comply with pre-Internet federal securities laws covering… Continue Reading

UK: The Latest Social Media Legal Updates

By Susan McLean and Sarah Wells on Posted in E-Commerce, Litigation

In our May 30, 2012 post on the Socially Aware blog—“Should We All Be Getting the Twitter “Jitters”? Be Careful What You Say Online (Particularly in the United Kingdom)”—we considered a variety of UK laws being used to regulate the content of tweets and other online messages. Since that post, there has been a series… Continue Reading

SEC Offers Guidance on Use of Social Media for Public Disclosure

By David M. Lynn on Posted in SEC, Securities Law

On April 2, 2013, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued guidance in the form of the Report of Investigation under Section 21(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 which indicates that social media channels—such as Twitter and Facebook—could be used by public companies to disseminate material information, without running afoul of Regulation… Continue Reading

Can Touting Your New Job on Social Media Sites Violate a Non-Solicitation Agreement?

By J. Alexander Lawrence and William Goodwin on Posted in Litigation

According to a federal judge in Oklahoma in Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. v. Cahill, simply sharing information about a new job over social media does not mean that you are inviting former co-workers to come join you in violation of a non-solicitation agreement. On February 12, 2013, U.S. District Court Judge James Payne of the… Continue Reading

Decades-Old Japanese Electioneering Law May Get a Web 2.0 Refresh

By Gabriel Meister on Posted in Asia

Here at Socially Aware, we report regularly on the difficulties inherent in applying long-established laws to new technologies like social media. An interesting example of this is unfolding in Japan: it concerns a decades-old law that has been interpreted to prohibit candidates, parties, and even the voting public from engaging in most campaign-related activities on… Continue Reading

Thinking About Using Pictures Pulled From Twitter? Think Again, New York Court Warns

By J. Alexander Lawrence and Jamie Kitano on Posted in Copyright, DMCA, IP, Litigation, Terms of Use

If you want to use those pictures you found on Twitter, beware. A federal judge in New York recently held that taking photos from Twitter to use for a commercial purpose infringes the photographer’s copyrights. On January 14, 2013, Judge Alison Nathan ruled that Agence France Presse (AFP), which provides subscribers with access to photos… Continue Reading

Watch What You Tweet: Proposed Social Media Guidance for Financial Institutions

By Nathan D. Taylor, Julie O'Neill and Andrew M. Smith on Posted in Financial Institutions, Privacy

With the explosive growth of social media, consumers increasingly expect to be able to interact online with the companies from which they buy goods and services. As a result, financial institutions have begun to explore the use of social media, both to strengthen relationships with existing customers and to attract new ones. Financial institutions, however,… Continue Reading

Socially Aware Looks Back: The Social Media Law Year in Review

By John Delaney and Jesse Soslow on Posted in Employment Law, Litigation, Privacy

2012 was a momentous year for social media law. We’ve combed through the court decisions, the legislative initiatives, the regulatory actions and the corporate trends to identify what we believe to be the ten most significant social media law developments of the past year–here they are, in no particular order: Bland v. Roberts – A… Continue Reading

New Issue of the Socially Aware Newsletter Now Available

By John Delaney, Gabriel Meister and Aaron Rubin on Posted in Employment Law, FCC, FTC, IP, Litigation, Privacy, Section 230 Safe Harbor, Statistics, Terms of Use, Trademark

In the latest issue of Socially Aware, our Burton Award-winning guide to the law and business of social media, we look at recent First Amendment, intellectual property, labor and privacy law developments affecting corporate users of social media and the Internet. We also recap major events from 2012 that have had a substantial impact on… Continue Reading

PeopleBrowsr Wins Round One Against Twitter

By J. Alexander Lawrence and Amanda Bakale on Posted in Litigation

The Superior Court of the State of California has entered a temporary restraining order requiring Twitter to continue to provide PeopleBrowsr with access to the Firehose, Twitter’s complete stream of all public tweets. Through the Firehose, Twitter provides third-party access to over 400 million daily tweets. PeopleBrowsr is a San Francisco-based social media analytics firm… Continue Reading

Which Side Are You On? Employers and Employees Battle Over Ownership of Social Media Accounts

By Christine E. Lyon and Jesse Soslow on Posted in Litigation

When an employee uses a social media account to promote his or her company, who keeps that account when the employee leaves? Perhaps more importantly, who keeps the friends, followers and connections associated with that account? Three lawsuits highlight the challenges an employer may face in seeking to gain control of work-related social media accounts… Continue Reading

We’ve Come for Your Tweets: Twitter to Appeal Denial of Its Motion to Quash District Attorney’s Subpoena

By J. Alexander Lawrence and Erin Herlihy on Posted in Litigation, Privacy, Terms of Use

As the Occupy Wall Street protests fade from memory, a related discovery battle between Twitter and the New York County District Attorney rages on. Earlier this year, we discussed the District Attorney’s efforts to subpoena user information and tweets of criminal defendant Malcolm Harris, an Occupy Wall Street protester charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly… Continue Reading

The Social Media Experiment: Challenges for Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers

By Jay G. Baris and John Delaney on Posted in Financial Institutions, Investment Management Law, Securities Law

The announcement by a Wall Street firm that it plans to give its financial advisers limited access to social media websites has been viewed by many as inevitable.  Morgan Stanley’s foray into the fast-changing world of social media highlights the difficulties faced by broker-dealers and investment advisers and the regulators who oversee them.  As more… Continue Reading

“You Have One New Lawsuit”: Can You Serve Legal Notice Through Social Media?

By Daniel Levison and Matthew O'Donnell on Posted in Litigation

As reported by Law360 and several other  sources, on June 7, 2012, in Fortunato v. Chase Bank, a federal district court ruled that defendant Chase Bank could not use Facebook to serve a third-party defendant with the complaint that Chase had filed against her. In Fortunato, plaintiff Lorri Fortunato sued Chase Bank, alleging that the… Continue Reading

Tracking the Trolls: A “Twitter Jitters” Update

By Alistair Maughan on Posted in E-Personation, Litigation

We reported this past May in our Socially Aware blog about efforts of law enforcement authorities in the United Kingdom to adapt existing laws to police potential offenses committed via social media.  The UK government has just announced proposals that will make it easier to identify people who abuse social media. The UK government’s somewhat surprising… Continue Reading

Should We All Be Getting the Twitter “Jitters”? Be Careful What You Say Online (Particularly in the United Kingdom)

By Alistair Maughan and Susan McLean on Posted in Ethics, Litigation

History is littered with examples of the law being slow to catch up with the use of technology.  Social media is no exception.  As our Socially Aware blog attests, countries around the world are having to think fast to apply legal norms to rapidly evolving communications technologies and practices. Law enforcement authorities in the United… Continue Reading

New York Court to Criminal Defendant: Your Tweets May Be Used Against You

By J. Alexander Lawrence and Erin Herlihy on Posted in Litigation, Privacy

In past Socially Aware posts, we have discussed using subpoenas in civil litigation to obtain evidence from social media sites, including whether individuals have a privacy interest in this information and how the Stored Communications Act may limit the use of subpoenas in civil cases.  Until now, we have not discussed these issues in the… Continue Reading

Caveat Emptor, Part II: A Brief Overview of Twitter’s Terms of Service and Related Documents

By Matthew R. King and Leo Martin on Posted in IP, Online Promotions, Privacy, Terms of Use

In our September 2010 issue of Socially Aware, we provided a brief overview of Facebook’s “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities,” the social media service’s complex set of terms and conditions that companies frequently “click-accept” with little review (often, in a rush to establish their Facebook presences).  Naturally, this situation is not limited to Facebook— for… Continue Reading

Relevance of Securities Laws in the Social Media Age – Seminar Series

By John Delaney on Posted in Event, SEC, Securities Law

Join us for this timely seminar series in New York, Palo Alto, and San Francisco. The use of social media by public companies and their employees raises many legal issues, such as the application of the federal securities laws to communications made through company websites, blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Those communications implicate laws regulating selective… Continue Reading

District Court Considers Value of Twitter Account

By Anelia V. Delcheva on Posted in Employment Law, IP, Terms of Use

“Man, what do I write here? And what’s it going to be valued at?” So read Noah Kravitz’s Twitter profile soon after Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James of the Northern District of California denied Kravitz’s motion to dismiss a number of claims brought against him by his former employer related to the Twitter account. While Kravitz… Continue Reading

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

By Seth Graham on Posted in Online Promotions, Terms of Use

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 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… Continue Reading