A University of Iowa student alleged that the college violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by not adequately protecting the online security and privacy of its students. Plaintiff Marc Muklewicz filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Southern Iowa on April 15, saying the university violated data security protocols and student privacy.
South Carolina senators are undaunted by potential lawsuits against a proposed state law requiring social media companies to adopt an age-appropriate design code (AADC), said Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee members at a livestreamed hearing Monday. The panel voted unanimously by voice to send the identical S-268 and H-3431 to the Senate floor. The House passed an earlier version of H-3431 in February (see 2502200059).
Increased scrutiny at the U.S. border poses heightened digital privacy risks for foreign nationals and even U.S. citizens entering the country, said John Francisco, a lawyer at Woods Rogers, said in a blog Friday.
Trade association NetChoice asked the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee on Thursday to follow the lead of the decision in NetChoice v. Yost and order a preliminary injunction on a law that requires age verification before a person can access social media. The Yost case, decided Wednesday, enjoined an Ohio law requiring age verification on First Amendment grounds (see 2504160049).
The U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled on Friday that social media platform X's copyright case against a data-scraping company will continue, and it allowed some but not all of data scraper Bright Data's counterclaims to continue as well. "The scraper states plausible claims for relief," the court said.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday vacated a preliminary injunction against Mississippi’s age-verification law and remanded the case to the U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi, citing the recent ruling in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC that “reframed the analysis for facial challenges.” The 5th Circuit said that the district court in the Mississippi case “should have undertaken more detailed factual analysis” before finding that trade association NetChoice was likely to succeed on its merits.
The Oklahoma Senate Technology and Telecommunications Committee cleared a pair of social media bills Thursday, despite their sponsors admitting the legislation needs work before coming to the floor. One bill addresses cyberbullying while the other is about age-verification, which many states have addressed this year (see 2501170053).
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced Thursday he is filing a lawsuit against messaging platform Discord for deceptive and unlawful business practices that led to children on the platform being exposed to violent and sexual content as well as child predators.
Bright Data said it has already provided the information social media platform X is asking the court to order it to submit. In letters to Judge William Alsup, the data scrapping firm responded Tuesday to X's claims that it is attempting to stall the case and withhold its activity logs (see 2504140051).
Maine lawmakers weighed a bill that would establish a working group to study the use of AI, social media and cell phones in public school settings Wednesday. While a member of the public testified in support of the legislation, some members of the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs worried about the cost, the effort's potential redundancy and that it could place an undue burden on Department of Education staff.