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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.
- 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... ›
Rolling With the Punches: The Fight Over Livestreaming
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Boxing fans eagerly awaited the May 2, 2015, championship match between boxers Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. But the fight also drew the interest of those following online video apps Meerkat and Periscope. Launched at the end of February 2015, Meerkat is a... ›Social Media Assets in Bankruptcy: Facebook and Twitter Accounts Subject to Reach of Creditors
Social media accounts can be “property of the estate” in a bankruptcy case of a business, and thus belong to the business, even when the contents of the accounts are intermingled with personal content of managers and owners. This principle was recently confirmed by... ›Status Updates
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Social discovery. Are the photos and status updates that you post to your social media accounts discoverable regardless of the privacy settings you choose? If they contain information that is especially relevant to the case, they probably are. Take, for example, two recent cases... ›Court Protects Anonymity of Yelp Users
By: J. Alexander Lawrence
Virginia’s highest court recently held that Yelp could not be forced to turn over the identities of anonymous online reviewers that a Virginia carpet-cleaning owner claimed tarnished his business. In the summer of 2012, Joseph Hadeed, owner of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, sued seven anonymous Yelp... ›Big Data and Human Resources—Letting the Computer Decide?
Employees are a company’s greatest asset, but if the company gets hiring decisions wrong, employees could also be the company’s greatest expense. Accordingly, recruiting the right people and retaining and promoting the best, while identifying and addressing under-achievers, is critical. Many organizations spend a... ›UK’s Financial Services Regulator: No Hashtags in Financial Promotions
Earlier this month the UK’s financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), issued its final guidance on financial promotions made via social media channels. As we reported last year , the FCA issued long-awaited draft guidance in August 2014 on the use of... ›The New Frontier in Interest Based Advertising: FTC Shifts Focus to Cross-Device Tracking
By: Julie O'Neill
As consumers increasingly connect to the Internet using multiple devices—such as mobile phones, tablets, computers, TVs and wearable devices—advertising technology companies have rapidly developed capabilities to reach the same consumers across their various devices. Such “cross-device” tracking enables companies to target ads to the... ›Five Vital Questions on the Implications of UK Law on Social Media
Chevy Kelly , a partner in the UK-based Social Media Leadership Forum, recently sat down with Socially Aware’s own Sue McLean , a Social Media Leadership Forum member, to discuss the legal implications of UK companies’ use of social media as part of their marketing... ›First-Ever Award of “Any Damages” for Fraudulent DMCA Takedowns Under Section 512(f)
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Under section 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), copyright owners are liable for “any damages” stemming from knowingly false accusations of infringement that result in removal of the accused online material. Section 512(f) aims to deter abuse of the DMCA requirement that... ›