The Guide to Social Media and Securities Law
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.
- - SECThe growing use of social media has created challenges for federal securities regulators and, given the significance of social media as a preferred method of communication for a large percentage of market participants, the need to adapt Federal securities laws and the regulatory framework... ›
Digital Advertising Alliance Focuses on Mobile Ads
By: Julie O'Neill
As more users spend more time on their mobile devices, advertising dollars are following. And the compliance regime that governs interest-based advertising (IBA) (formerly referred to as online behavioral advertising or OBA) is expanding as well. (IBA is the collection of information about users’... ›The NYDFS Finalizes its BitLicense Proposal
By: Jeremy R. Mandell
On June 3, 2015, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued a final rule regarding its “BitLicense” regulatory regime (“Final Rule”). The Final Rule follows an initial proposal from July 2014 and a revised proposal from February 2015 (“Revised Proposal”). Our analysis of... ›“Firsts” for the World of Virtual Currencies
By: Jeremy R. Mandell
There have been two recent virtual currency-related actions worthy of note: (1) the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) announced its first civil enforcement action against a virtual currency exchanger, and (2) the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) granted its first license to... ›Status Updates: A Right To Be Forgotten Update; Errand Apps for Everyone?; Your Entire Google Search History
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Lest we forget. Established a year ago this month by a European Court of Justice decision , the right to be forgotten requires search engines like Google to comply with an individual’s request to remove “inadequate, irrelevant,” or “excessive” links that appear in search... ›The FTC Weighs in on In-Store Tracking. Or Does It?
By: Julie O'Neill
In law school, everybody learns the adage that hard cases make bad law. When it comes to the Federal Trade Commission, a better aphorism might be, “easy cases make new law.” The FTC’s recent settlement with Nomi Technologies Inc. is, as the FTC’s press... ›Status Updates: Facebook Posts—Reliable Evidence?; Quora Post Costs Applicant a Job; a New Ephemeral Messaging App
Facebook: Fact or fiction? These days, courts are more and more frequently faced with disputes over whether, as part of the discovery process, a litigant should be entitled to view the opposing party’s social media posts. As we’ve discussed , some courts deciding physical... ›Effort to Hide Facebook Evidence by Deactivating Account Ends Badly for Louisiana Man
By: J. Alexander Lawrence
As social media has become ubiquitous, courts are wrestling with more discovery disputes involving social media accounts. In a recent case, Crowe v. Marquette Transportation Co. Gulf-Inland, LLC , the plaintiff deactivated his Facebook account in an effort to be able to claim that... ›#Trademarks?: Hashtags as Trademarks
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Hashtags have become ubiquitous in social media, but their status as intellectual property—particularly as trademarks—is still developing. First adopted by Twitter users to link user posts, hashtags are character strings preceded by the “#” symbol that generate a link to all other posts containing... ›Are You Socially Aware? Take Our Millennial Influencers Quiz
OK, Socially Aware readers, we’ve got a pop-culture quiz for you today. How many of the following names are familiar to you? Smosh The Fine Brothers PewDiePie KSI Ryan Higa If any of those monikers rings a bell, we’re guessing you’re a millennial, the... ›