Treatise Update: Social Media and the Law

Social Media and the Law (2020 Edition) examines the use of social media in a variety of legal contexts, including privacy, civil litigation, employment, criminal activity and prosecution, intellectual property, defamation, advertising, and regulated industries. Relevant legislation, cases, usage trends, and industry responses are discussed.

Among the new developments covered in the 2020 Edition are:

  • Deepfakes — videos made using a new technology that falsely shows people saying or doing something that they did not say or do. See section 5:4.5.
  • Boeing standard under the NRLA: In one of the first decisions applying the Boeing standard, the NLRB found an employer’s confidentiality rule presumptively lawful under the first step in Boeing and found unlawful an employee handbook policy that workers should not post “derogatory information about the company” on social media sites and instead should use the normal channels for raising grievances and complaints. See sections 6:4.2[B][2][a] and 6:4.2[B][2][b][ii].
  • Guidance for financial services industry: In 2019 FINA released new guidance on disclosure innovations in advertising and other communications with the public.  See section 7:3.2[A].
  • Medical Device Vulnerabilities: A draft guidance issued by the FDA in October 2018 recommends medical device manufacturers and healthcare delivery organizations take steps to ensure appropriate security safeguards are in place. See section 7:3.3[D].
  • Platform Criminality, whereby criminal activities are enabled and funded through data-rich platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and Uber. See section 9:2.11.

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