Posts tagged social media
Extending Corporate Tort Liability to Social Media Algorithms

In September 2021, whistleblower reports about social media platforms’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) that promote certain platform content over others raised critical questions about the relationship between AI algorithms and corporate liability standards. Facebook consistently claims that AI is an “efficient” and “proactive” means to stop hate speech and other problematic content on its platform. However, internal documents reveal that AI removes less than ten percent of harmful content, such as hate speech or misinformation, from the platform.

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Media and the Right to a Fair Trial: Juror Impartiality in the Information Age

A 2021 study by Pew Research Center found that nearly 90% of Americans use the internet, social media, or smartphones regularly to access the news. [1] The proliferation of online information is particularly influential in high publicity cases—cases that involve terrorism or violent crime, garnering high levels of national media attention—in which juries may be skewed by the media they consume. In United States v. Tsarnaev (2021), the case of the Boston Marathon bomber currently on appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court, the risks of media bias are especially clear. In Tsarnaev’s case and similarly high publicity cases, trial judges ought to exercise more rigorous voir dire questioning on media consumption in order to protect defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to a “trial by an impartial jury.”

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“Mood Forever”: Rethinking Fair-Use Cases in the Age of Social Media

In 2019, model Emily Ratajkowski faced a copyright lawsuit from photographer Robert O’Neill. O’Neill, a paparazzi photographer, had taken a street photograph of Ratajkowski. Ratajkowski later reposted the photo on her Instagram story, a feature of Instagram where one can temporarily post a picture for 24 hours, with an additional caption superimposed over the photo stating “mood forever.” [1] Under Section 106 of the Copyright Law of the United States, O’Neill held the exclusive right to authorize the reproduction of the photograph. Citing this exclusive right, O’Neill subsequently filed a complaint against Ratajkowski for her “unauthorized reproduction” of the photograph. However, Section 107 of copyright law outlines certain exceptions that fall under the category of “fair use,” stating that if the original work is reproduced “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research,” then the reproduction does not constitute copyright infringement. [2] Ratajkowski’s lawyers argued that the Instagram story is fair use. In the photograph, Ratajkowski holds a bouquet of flowers over her face, blocking her face from paparazzi; in her repost, Ratajkowski also adds the text “mood forever.” Ratajkowski’s lawyers thus argued that the addition of the text transformed the photograph into a critique of the “abusive, aggressive, and harassing practice of paparazzi.” [3]

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TikTok: The Newest Social Media Trend or a Threat to National Security?

From sensational dances to personalized news, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms of today’s generation. Since its 2018 release in the United States, TikTok has soared in popularity, surpassing two billion global downloads in April 2020. Owned by the Beijing-based startup ByteDance, Tiktok has sparked apprehension among world leaders and politicians that sensitive user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government.

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Social Media in Civil Law

Online content provides valuable evidence to all kinds of civil cases, including, but not limited to, divorce cases and accident cases. But obtaining that evidence often clashes with the legal right to privacy. While the issue of online evidence has begun to be addressed in several civil cases, the law must continue to adapt to accommodate confrontations between the right to privacy and the growing online domain.

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