News

Two Hogan & Hartson Advisories on the Use of Social Media

Image
Image

Many people remember the now-dated cartoon from the New Yorker magazine showing two dogs sitting in front of a computer, with one observing to the other "the best part about the Internet is that no one knows you are a dog".  Even today, many people feel they enjoy complete privacy when interacting online, especially with certain social media sites.  But times have changed from when anonymity meant there were no obvious consequences to online conduct.  The proliferation of the use of social media is much in the news, and the legal issues also are proliferating.

Hogan & Hartson has just authored an advisory, available by clicking here, setting forth the considerations that arise when social media is used by three different groups — an entity itself, the employees of that entity, and third parties in reference to the entity. We discuss the benefits of social media, as well as issues and risks, from each of these three angles.

Also, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it will hold a two-day public hearing in November on how pharmaceutical companies use the web and social-media tools to market their products.  This is the first step in a process that will establish guidelines for drug makers using the tools of social networking.  The Hogan & Hartson advisory on this development is available by clicking here.

 

Authored by Christopher Wolf

View more insights and analysis

Register now to receive personalized content and more!