Facebook joins Amazon in pursuing reviews for sale
Facebook, through its parent company Meta, has filed a federal lawsuit against a company that allegedly produces and sells fake reviews and feedback for ads designed to increase an advertiser’s Facebook Customer Feedback Score. The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California against Chad Taylor Cowan of Australia, who does business under the name Customer Feedback Score Solutions.
Andrew Lustigman, head of Olshan’s Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Group, was quoted in a Legaltech News article titled "Fake Accounts Mean Litigation Could Be a Key Part of Facebook's Future"
Over the last several years, the use of social media as a vehicle for advertising has grown exponentially. As discussed in prior blog posts, examples of which you can find here and here, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has released guidelines pertaining to such paid social media posts, requiring that any material connections between advertisers/brands and those social media users posting the content is clearly and conspicuously disclosed.
Andrew Lustigman, head of Olshan’s Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Group, was quoted in the New York Post.
In the wake of recent public dialogue about whether or not social media plays a role in the outcome of public events, this week, German Justice Minister, Heiko Maas, has proposed a law that would see social media sites face fines of up to 50 million euros if they fail to remove illegal content from their platforms. This comes on the heels of analogous discussions in the U.S. about social media platforms' role in disseminating, and obligations to review and remove, now-coined “fake news” content. Most recently, on March 13th, 2017, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, again defended his company against assertions that by failing to remove false content from the platform, Facebook plays a role in promulgating “fake news.” Following a November 2016 Facebook post in which Zuckerberg addressed the need to weigh the removal of “fake” or illegal content from the platform against the preservation of freedom of expression, Zuckerberg touted accusations that Facebook wants “fake news” as “crap.” Commenting at a recent talk at North Carolina A&T State University, Zuckerberg rejected the notion that Facebook views “fake news” articles as a means of inducing more “clicks.”
Olshan Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Partner Andrew Lustigman was quoted in a Law360 article on the Federal Trade Commission’s revised advertising endorsement guidelines addressing paid product reviews on social media.
A recent Facebook change is just another reminder that brands need to be aware of the traditional legal rules governing promotional marketing, as well as the social media terms and policies.
This Facebook change is just another reminder that brands need to be aware of the traditional legal rules governing promotional marketing, as well as the social media terms and policies.
On August 27, 2013 Facebook revised its Promotion Guidelines in order to make it easier for business to create and administer promotions on Facebook.
In recent days, numerous Facebook users have posted a legal-sounding statement as an update to their pages containing some version of the following:
Jonathan I. Ezor continues his frequent presentations on the business and legal aspects of social media.