Socially Aware

August 17, 2021 - Social Media Policy, User-Generated Content

Clubhouse faces steep challenges in spite of new features and expanded access

Clubhouse, the former invitation-only social media darling that captured the attention of investors, social media early adopters, and competitors since its introduction in April 2020, now faces significant challenges as it strives to remain relevant and attract new and engaged users. Since our previous report …›

August 24, 2020 - Defamation, Litigation, Section 230 Safe Harbor, User-Generated Content

EDNY Refuses to Dismiss on § 230 Grounds in “Shitty Media Men” Defamation Case

By: Aaron P. Rubin

In Elliott v. Donegan, a federal district court in New York held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not warrant the dismissal of a defamation claim where the plaintiff’s complaint did not “foreclose[] the possibility that Defendant created or developed the …›

March 26, 2020 - Copyright, DMCA, Privacy, Section 230 Safe Harbor, User-Generated Content

Social Links: Biden’s stance on CDA §230; liability for user-generated content; Twitter’s process for reviewing Trump’s tweets

By: Anthony M. Ramirez

A federal district court in Illinois allowed claims for vicarious and direct copyright infringement to proceed against an employee of the Chicago Cubs Baseball Club for retweeting a third-party tweet containing the plaintiff’s copyrighted material. Read the opinion. Thinking of backing Biden in November? Would his …›

December 20, 2019 - COPPA, Copyright, Ephemeral Messaging, Terms of Use, User-Generated Content, Web Scraping

2019: Our Greatest Hits

Here at Socially Aware we covered a wide range of issues in 2019. We reviewed an opinion reminding us that user-generated content posted on social media platforms is not necessarily freely available for use in other contexts, and a rare instance of a federal …›

September 4, 2019 - Litigation, Section 230 Safe Harbor, User-Generated Content

CDA Section 230 Immunizes Platform From Liability for Friend and Content Suggestion Algorithms

By: J. Alexander Lawrence

A recent Second Circuit decision makes clear that the safe harbor that social media and other Internet companies enjoy under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act broadly applies to a wide variety of claims. When you think about the Section 230 safe harbor, don’t …›

June 27, 2019 - Cyberbullying, Section 230 Safe Harbor, User-Generated Content

California Court Finds Section 230 Protects Decision to Suspend and Ban Twitter Account

By: Aaron P. Rubin

A California Superior Court’s recent ruling in Murphy v. Twitter held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shielded Twitter from liability for suspending and banning a user’s account for violating the platform’s policies. As we have previously noted, Section 230 has come …›

April 30, 2019 - Digital Content, Litigation, Section 230 Safe Harbor, User-Generated Content

Appeals Court Again Upholds Section 230 Protections in Case Against Grindr

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Often hailed as the law that gave us the modern Internet, Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act generally protects online platforms from liability for content posted by third parties. Many commentators, including us here at Socially Aware, have noted that Section 230 has …›

Time to Hit Pause: Copyright Infringement on User Generated Platforms – When Is the Platform Provider Liable for Damages?

By: Kristina Ehle and Stephan Kreß

In 2019, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) is expected to clarify one of the key open issues in EU copyright law: the extent to which online platforms such as YouTube can be liable for copyright infringement caused by user-generated content—content uploaded on to …›