Social Networks and the Law
Online social networks have brought about significant new convergences between the sphere of social relationships and previous modes of consumer, commercial and governmental activity and individual self-expression. The everyday activities of the hundreds of millions of social network users have created a quasi-public space in which longstanding legal and public policy debates are playing out anew. Public concerns implicated by social networking sites range from democratic governance and the First Amendment to privacy and consumer protection. These public values must contend with the private interests of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, and other for-profit corporations, as well as the governmental interests of state actors, in a space whose architecture is largely determined unilaterally by the site owner’s contractual and technological designs.
The 2011 North Carolina Law Review Symposium, “Social Networks and the Law,” will examine problems and responses arising from these developments in connection with both the longstanding concerns of cyberlaw (intellectual property, free speech/press, privacy) and other diverse areas of law (securities regulation, antitrust, estates, international/comparative law). The symposium will provide an opportunity for many of the nation’s leading scholars and practitioners to share solutions and insights across disciplines, and to frame a coherent agenda for future scholarship, law and policy in this emerging field.
For more information, please contact:
Lauren Joy, lcjoy@live.unc.edu