This odyssey began when an old laptop was discovered by a curious 14-year-old boy in Kansas. The boy, known only as “QR,” used it to sneak onto a handful of adult websites over two months last year, racking up 118 virtual...more
7/2/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
At-Will Employment ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Cyber Threats ,
Employment Policies ,
Exploitation ,
Facebook ,
Fines ,
Fraud ,
Free Speech ,
Influencers ,
LGBTQ ,
Metaverse ,
Minors ,
Social Media ,
Termination ,
Websites
OHIO SOCIAL MEDIA LAW STRUCK DOWN -
On April 16, 2025, a federal judge in Ohio ended the state’s ambitious plan to severely limit social media access for minors. The court permanently blocked Ohio’s Attorney General from...more
Character Technologies has been hit with two lawsuits, including a wrongful death suit (among other claims), in less than two months over its popular Character.ai chatbot. The first was filed in the U.S. District Court for...more
12/13/2024
/ Algorithms ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Bots ,
Breach of Contract ,
Defamation ,
Facebook ,
Fraud ,
Immunity ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Mental Health ,
Metaverse ,
Minors ,
Music Industry ,
Piracy ,
Popular ,
Preemptive Challenges ,
Safe Harbors ,
Terms of Service ,
Terms of Use ,
Uber ,
Web Scraping ,
Willful Infringement
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has sent a challenge to Texas’s controversial online age verification law back to district court for additional clarification, while leaving the lower court’s injunction...more
11/14/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Blogging Platforms ,
Canada ,
Domain Names ,
Electronic Devices ,
Fake Reviews ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fraud ,
Minors ,
Mobile Apps ,
Online Platforms ,
Online Reviews ,
TikTok ,
Verification Requirements
Sick of the “very demure, very mindful” social media trend yet? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office probably is too. Our national nightmare began on August 5 when TikToker Jools LeBron uploaded a video of herself...more
9/25/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Conspiracies ,
Data Collection ,
EU ,
First Amendment ,
Minors ,
Money Laundering ,
Music Industry ,
Social Media ,
State Attorneys General ,
TikTok ,
Trademark Registration ,
USPTO ,
Warning Labels ,
Wire Fraud
Social media giant TikTok has been sued by the United States for allegedly collecting data on children under thirteen illegally. The suit claims the app, which is owned by China-based parent company ByteDance, allowed...more
8/19/2024
/ Big Tech ,
Boycotts ,
Data Collection ,
Deep Fake ,
DMCA ,
Electronic Frontier Foundation ,
Minors ,
Parental Consent ,
Section 230 ,
Securities Fraud ,
Social Media ,
TikTok ,
Twitter
A few months ago, we highlighted the many pending and enacted state-level social media laws targeting minors’ use of social media. Since then, political and industry groups have begun to push back, calling into question...more
As we reported in 2023, Utah was the first state in the nation to enact laws limiting minors’ use of social media. In early March 2024, Republican Governor Spencer Cox effectively repealed and replaced the previously enacted...more
4/4/2024
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Big Tech ,
Data Collection ,
Governor DeSantis ,
Immunity ,
Liability ,
Minors ,
OMB ,
Parental Consent ,
Section 230 ,
Social Media ,
Targeted Digital Advertising
A court in the Southern District of Ohio has issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Social Media Parental Notification Act, an Ohio law that would require social media platforms to obtain parental consent...more