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Meta’s Bay State Blues: Mass. High Court Finds Another Crack in the Section 230 Shield
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April 20, 2026
Meta’s Bay State Blues: Mass. High Court Finds Another Crack in the Section 230 Shield
By: Robert Ward
Meta’s Bay State Blues: Mass. High Court Finds Another Crack in the Section 230 Shield Mere weeks after juries in California and New Mexico returned multi-million-dollar verdicts against Meta Platforms, Inc., the social media company suffered another defeat. On April 10, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) rejected the social media company’s attempt to raise Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act as a shield against the Massachusetts Attorney General’s lawsuit alleging that the company, along with Instagram LLC, designed the Instagram platform to foster compulsive use among children. Like the plaintiff in the California case, the Attorney General alleges that Meta implemented a “suite of design features that exploit [young] users’ neurological vulnerability to social media addiction,” including “infinite…
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Thinking about adding an AI Chatbot? Some key considerations.
February 17, 2026
Thinking about adding an AI Chatbot? Some key considerations.
By: Steven Hess
Many companies are thinking about how to deploy new AI systems to automate routine work and to improve their product. For many businesses, adding an AI chatbot is a valuable way to enhance the customer experience by automating routine conversations,[1] and by alerting customers to new deals and offerings that are relevant to them.[2] Coupled with the rising ubiquity of AI chatbots in modern life,[3]…
Is Scrolling the New Smoking?
January 21, 2026
Is Scrolling the New Smoking?
By: Lauren Scribner
In the final weeks of 2025, New York passed a law requiring social media platforms with “certain predatory features” to display warning labels about “the dangerous impact” those features pose to the mental health of users under the age of eighteen.[1] These so-called “predatory features” include continuous and infinite scrolling, displaying addictive feeds, and automatically playing video content.[2] Warning labels will be displayed upon the…
Does Google Need to Police Its Ads for Fraud?
March 21, 2011
Does Google Need to Police Its Ads for Fraud?
By: Ifrah Law
Do Google and other search engines have an obligation to screen their advertisers for those who may be perpetrating consumer fraud? Google has said in the past that its AdWords Content Policy will reject advertisements for sites that make false claims and that it investigates and removes any ads that violate Google’s internal policies, but a recent letter sent by a public interest group to…
FTC Cracks Down on Merchants’ Empty Promises
March 3, 2011
FTC Cracks Down on Merchants’ Empty Promises
By: Ifrah Law
On March 2, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission announced “Operation Empty Promises,” a multi-agency law enforcement initiative aimed at cracking down on misleading “work from home” and other business opportunity offers. The campaign includes more than 90 actions brought by various state and federal agencies in the past year, including the Department of Justice, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and state law enforcement agencies. It…
Chargebacks Can Be a Major Problem for Small Businesses
February 17, 2011
Chargebacks Can Be a Major Problem for Small Businesses
By: Ifrah Law
The Wall Street Journal has acknowledged the serious problem that chargebacks pose to businesses in an article posted on its website. Merchants pay a heavy price for these reverse credit card transactions, which cost them a lost sale, the lost product, and a fine imposed by the credit card company. What’s more, courts have equated chargebacks to merchant fraud, using merchants’ chargeback rates against them…
FTC Looks at Football Helmet Safety Claims
February 7, 2011
FTC Looks at Football Helmet Safety Claims
By: Ifrah Law
Helmet safety has caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission, which is looking into marketing claims that some football helmets can help reduce concussions. Recent months have seen widespread publicity about concussions and other traumatic head and neck injuries suffered by football players, prompting the National Football League to step up enforcement of rules against illegal hits. Pressure on the FTC to investigate possibly…
Middlemen Run Afoul of FTC Suspicions
February 3, 2011
Middlemen Run Afoul of FTC Suspicions
By: Ifrah Law
Brokers, middlemen, and intermediaries serve an economic purpose: to put people who want a product or service in touch with a product maker or service provider. Real estate brokers help us buy and sell homes; mortgage brokers help us find lenders for our home purchases; manufacturing reps help get new products on our grocery shelves, and so on. These middlemen help match buyers and sellers…
