endorsement – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Taylor Swift Responded To Trump’s AI Driven Nonsense With An Endorsement Rather Than A Lawsuit

from the as-we-were-saying dept

Last month, we discussed the internet’s reaction to Donald Trump, well, Donald Trumping all over social media. He shared several images on social media, some of which were real, some of which were parody, and some of which were AI generated images, all of which appeared to suggest that Taylor Swift had endorsed him. In fact, his own contribution to that social media post were two whole words: “I accept.”

But there was nothing to accept, of course. And the internet’s reaction in far too many places was all in advocating legal action by Swift’s team, including utilizing new laws untested in the courtroom in order to sue Trump over this implied false endorsement. I suggested that would be a massive waste of time and money. Instead, if the actions Trump took irritated Swift, the sweetest revenge would be a highly publicized endorsement of Harris (Swift endorsed Biden last cycle) or, in lieu of that, at least a public rebuke of the social media posts. From that previous post:

But the larger point here is that all Swift really has to do here is respond, if she chooses, with her own political endorsement or thoughts. It’s not as though she didn’t do so in the last election cycle. If she’s annoyed at what Trump did and wants to punish him, she can solve that with more speech: her own. Hell, there aren’t a ton of people out there who can command an audience that rivals Donald Trump’s… but she almost certainly can!

Just point out that what he shared was fake. Mention, if she wishes, that she voted against him last time. If she likes, she might want to endorse a different candidate.

Now, I’m quite certain Her Swiftness didn’t actually read my post and take it as the advice it was designed to be, but she certainly has acted as though she had. Less than a month after Trump’s AI nonsense, and immediately after the debate between Trump and Harris, Taylor Swift took to social media herself both to address what Trump did and to endorse Harris.

Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.

I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.

I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.

With love and hope,

Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady

Now, the focus of this post is not that Trump is the Big Bad, or to suggest that anyone view Swift’s endorsement as a gospel they themselves must follow. Instead, the point is the one we made originally: no lawsuit was needed for Swift to address this. As we said: “she can solve [this] with more speech: her own.” That lines up fairly well with Swift’s statement: “The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

The real question is whether this endorsement ever would have happened without Trump’s online antics. We can’t know for certain, but it sure sounds from Swift like they may have lit the spark.

Filed Under: ai, deepfakes, donald trump, endorsement, generative ai, kamala harris, more speech, response, taylor swift

Content Moderation Case Study: Twitter Removes 'Verified' Badge In Response To Policy Violations (2017)

from the verified-or-a-stamp-of-approval? dept

Summary: Many social networks have enabled users to use a pseudonym as their identity on that network. Since users could use whatever name they wanted, they could pretend to be someone else, creating certain challenges for those platforms. For example, for sites that allowed such pseudonyms, how would they identify who the actual person was and who was merely an impostor? Some companies, such as Facebook, went the route of requiring users to use their real names. Twitter went another way, allowing pseudonyms.

But what can a company do when there are multiple accounts of the same, often famous, person?

In 2009, Twitter began experimenting with a program to “verify” celebrities.

The initial intent of this program was to identify which Twitter account actually belongs to the person or organization of that Twitter handle (or name). Twitter’s announcement of this feature explains it in straightforward terms:

_With this feature, you can easily see which accounts we know are ‘real’ and authentic. That means we’ve been in contact with the person or entity the account is representing and verified that it is approved. (This does not mean we have verified who, exactly, is writing the tweets.)

This also does not mean that accounts without the ‘Verified Account’ badge are fake. The vast majority of accounts on the system are not impersonators, and we don’t have the ability to check 100% of them. For now, we’ve only verified a handful of accounts to help with cases of mistaken identity or impersonation.

From the start, Twitter denoted “verified” accounts with a, now industry-standard, “blue checkmark.” In the initial announcement, Twitter noted that this was experimental, and the company did not have time to verify everyone who wanted to be verified. It was not until 2016 that Twitter first opened up an application process for anyone to get verified.

A year later, in late 2017, the company closed the application process, noting that people were interpreting “verification” as a stamp of endorsement, which it had not intended. Recognizing this unintended perception, Twitter began removing verification checkmarks from accounts that violated certain policies, starting with high-profile white supremacists.

While this policy received some criticism for “blurring” the line between speakers and speech, it was a recognition of the concerns about how the checkmark was seen as an “endorsement” of someone whose views and actions (even those off of Twitter) were not those Twitter wished to endorse. In that way, the removal of the verification became a content moderation tool for a type of subtle negative endorsement.

Even though those users were “verified” as authentic, Twitter recognized that being verified was a privilege and that removing it was a tool in the content moderation toolbox. Rather than suspending or terminating accounts, the company said that it would also consider removing the verification on accounts that violated its new hateful conduct and abusive behavior policies.

Company Considerations:

Issue Considerations:

Resolution: It took many years until Twitter reopened its verification system, and then it did so only in a very limited manner. The system has already ran into problems, as journalists discovered multiple fake accounts that were verified.

However, a larger concern over the new verification rules is that it allows for significant subjective decision-making by the company over how the rules are applied. Activist Albert Fox Cahn explained how the new program is making it “too easy” for journalists to get verified but “too difficult” for activists, showing the challenging nature of any such program.

_“When Angela Lang, founder and executive director of the Milwaukee-based civic engagement group BLOC, decided to get a checkmark, she thought, ‘I’ve done enough. Let’s check out how to be verified.’ Despite Lang and BLOC’s nationally recognized work on Black civic engagement, she found herself shut out. When Detroit-based activist and Data 4 Black Lives national organizing director Tawana Petty applied, her request was promptly rejected. Posting on the platform that refused to verify her, Petty said, ‘Unbelievable that creating a popular hashtag would even be a requirement. This process totally misses the point of why so many of us want to be verified.’ Petty told me, ‘I still live with the anxiety that my page might be duplicated and my contacts will be spammed.’ Previously, she was forced to shut down pages on other social media platforms to protect loved ones from this sort of abuse.

“According to anti-racist economist Kim Crayton, verification is important because ‘that blue check automatically means that what you have to say is of value, and without it, particularly if you’re on the front lines, particularly if you’re a Black woman, you’re questioned.’ As Lang says, ‘Having that verification is another way of elevating those voices as trusted messengers.’ According to Virginia Eubanks, an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany, SUNY, and author of Automating Inequality, ‘The blue check isn’t about social affirmation, it’s a safety issue. Someone cloning my account could leave my family or friends vulnerable and could leave potential sources open to manipulation.’” — Albert Fox Cahn

Originally published to the Trust & Safety Foundation website.

Filed Under: case study, content moderation, endorsement, verification badges
Companies: twitter

Roca Labs Lawsuit Gets Even More Bizarre: Now With An 'Unauthorized' Guest Appearance By 'TV Celebrity' Alfonso Ribeiro

from the hey-everyone,-it's-carlton-from-the-fresh-prince dept

The Roca Labs saga continues to get more and more bizarre — and now it’s got an “unauthorized” appearance by “television celebrity” Alfonso Ribeiro, perhaps better known as Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, whose Carlton Dance has become the stuff of TV legend. On Monday, Roca Labs filed a motion in a (failed, but we’ll get to that) attempt to file an affidavit from Roca’s “director of marketing,” Don Juravin, supposedly about how the PissedConsumer site is acting unfairly. The affidavit repeats a bunch of claims from the original questionable lawsuit against PissedConsumer’s parent company, Consumer Opinion Corp., but then adds the following:

On September 22, 2014 I purchased a promoted review on pissedconsumer.com for a monthly fee of $5.99 (See Exhibit C attached).

I placed an approved statement by television celebrity Alfonso Riberio [sic] who is currently a contestant on Dancing with the Stars about Roca Labs.

On September 22, 2014 I received a notice from Pissedconsumer.com that my review was canceled…. I received no explanation of why it was canceled.

Roca Labs is using this as a (rather weak) attempt to argue that PissedConsumer is engaged in some sort of unfair practices because it (Roca claims) “will not allow positive information to come forward.”

This filing was quickly rejected by the court for procedural issues, focused on the failure of Roca Labs’ lawyers to first confer with opposing counsel. However, before even that happened, Roca Labs filed another motion to “shorten time” for when Roca can file a motion for sanctions against PissedConsumer’s lawyer, Marc Randazza. The reasoning behind the claim of sanction is not clear (it says a draft is attached, but it does not appear in PACER right now), but it seems to suggest that it’s because of Randazza filing for a temporary injunction against Roca Labs threatening or suing the witnesses that have come forward on behalf of PissedConsumer and against Roca Labs. As we mentioned in our previous post, within days of PissedConsumer’s legal response to Roca Labs, the company’s “general counsel” had sent legal threat letters to all three former customers who had filed statements, even though Roca Labs hadn’t had any dealings with two of them for over three years.

It’s difficult to see how anything Randazza did was sanctionable (Roca Labs’ lawyers’ actions, on the other hand…). Either way, Randazza has now filed a rather revealing response, opposing the motion to shorten time, noting that it fails for the same procedural issue (and more) as the earlier filing and because there’s basically no chance that the sanctions succeed. It notes that the court has reviewed his motion for the injunction and passed it along to a magistrate judge, who has asked Roca Labs to respond — something that would be unlikely if the court felt his filing was somehow frivolous. It also fails to actually cite any legal authority for shortening the length of time.

And then there’s this:

Finding its bullying tactics unsuccessful, Roca filed an unsupportable complaint, along with it, an unsupportable motion for injunctive relief. Thereafter, Roca began trying to intimidate witnesses. Then, Roca got even more desperate ? submitting an affidavit… that contained demonstrable perjury ? that the actor Alfonso Ribeiro (?Carlton? from ?The Fresh Prince of Bel Air? and current ?Dancing with the Stars? contestant) endorsed the Roca product….. See Exhibit A, a demand letter from Ribeiro?s attorneys attesting to the perjurious nature of Roca?s claims that their client approved any such statement.

Whoops. As can be seen in this letter, Ribeiro’s lawyers appear rather upset about his likeness being used in this way and make it clear that it’s unauthorized:

Ribeiro unequivocally is not, has never been and has no intention of ever becoming a paid spokesperson of the Product [Roca Labs]. Furthermore, Ribeiro has never personally used the Product and in no manner whatsoever endorses the Product.

The unauthorized Review and deceitful use of Ribeiro’s name, image, likeness and falsely attributed quotes violates California Civil Code Section 3344, invades Ribeiro’s common law rights of privacy and publicity, amounts to unfair competition, is an unfair business practices, and constitutes copyright infringement, among other causes of action.

I’m not sure that Roca Labs’ usage would actually be “unfair competition” or “copyright infringement,” but that might depend on other specifics. However, they make it clear that he has not and will not endorse the product, which would make this a total slam dunk publicity rights case (this is the exact type of situation that publicity rights law was designed for, even if people keep trying to stretch it). It is worth noting that the letter in question is to PissedConsumer, concerning its hosting of the review. That review — which was up earlier this week when I saw it, has since been removed, noting the letter from Ribeiro’s attorney.

Much more tellingly, a page that used to be on Roca Labs’ own website showing the very same endorsement from Ribeiro has also disappeared from the site, though (as of this posting) it’s still viewable via Google cache. Here’s a screenshot to show that it absolutely existed:

There is a photo of what appears to be Ribeiro holding Roca Labs’ product — so there may be some questions raised about whether he did or did not endorse the product at some point, but his lawyers seem fairly definitive in saying he did not. The fact that Roca has removed the page from its own site also says a lot (and none of it good for Roca Labs).

And, we’re not done yet. Roca Labs’ lawyer, Paul Berger, also sent threatening emails to Randazza himself, suggesting that Randazza had been “making defamatory comments” to the media. The email exchange, which Randazza filed as an exhibit with his filing, shows Randazza responding to Berger asking what specific defamatory quote he’s talking about. Berger instead quotes PissedConsumer’s legal filing (about calling Roca Labs’ product “snake oil”), which we (and, I believe) other news publications, quoted. Randazza pointed out to Berger that it was not a quote from him but rather in his pleadings, and then asked (one assumes, sarcastically) if Berger is truly asking Randazza to retract a statement from his motion for preliminary injunction. I would assume that Berger is aware of the concept of litigation privilege, so either he didn’t fully read Randazza’s earlier filings, he forgot about litigation privilege, or he’s just blustering for the sake of blustering. Randazza’s latest filing suggests the latter may be the case:

The desperation continued with Roca threatening personal claims against the Defendants? attorney for statements made in the course of litigation.

Also, for whatever it’s worth, Berger accuses Randazza of distributing the filings to reporters, perhaps unaware that we reporters are also allowed access to PACER and can (and do!) download documents ourselves. Shocking, I know.

Either way, the Roca Labs case is taking on the stench of Righthaven- and Prenda-like desperation. Given what’s happened so far, I imagine there are still more interesting things to come.

Update: And… just like that, the court has denied the motion to shorten time on the procedural issues around the failure to confer with opposing counsel.

Filed Under: alfonso ribeiro, endorsement, marc randazza, opinions, paul berger, publicity rights, reviews, sanctions
Companies: consumer opinion corp., pissedconsumer, roca labs

Now That Alicia Keys Is No Longer Blackberry's 'Creative Director' Can We Stop Using Pop Stars As Fake Creative Directors?

from the please? dept

Three years ago, we called out the stupid trend of big tech companies pretending that they’d hired some pop star as “creative director” after Intel had named Will.i.am to that role and Polaroid had done the same with Lady Gaga. A year later, we repeated what a dumb idea this was when Blackberry named noted iPhone user Alicia Keys to the same role. As we said, if this was, say, an actual music service, and the person was really involved, it might make sense. But the truth of all three of these situations was that they were little more than a promotional sponsorship deal pretending to be a “hire.” And, this really discounts the hard work that actual creative directors do for these companies.

Either way, it should come as little surprise that Blackberry — a company on the verge of not existing — is now admitting that Keys is “leaving her role” exactly a year after it started. Let’s be frank here: she’s not “leaving her role.” She had a one year endorsement/promotional contract, and that deal is now ending. The idea that she was actually employed as a creative director is clearly bogus. What did she do?

She appeared at numerous corporate events throughout the year and in some promotional material.

Right. Same exact thing as a typical celebrity endorsement deal.

For whatever reason, tech companies always seem to announce these things in January (often in conjunction with CES, which is taking place next week). Hopefully, this year, we can avoid such silliness. I don’t want to hear about Justin Bieber becoming “creative director” at IBM or Miley Cyrus’ new “job” as “creative director” at Microsoft.

Filed Under: alicia keys, creative director, endorsement, lady gaga, will.i.am
Companies: blackberry, intel, polaroid

Fox News Sues Senate Candidate For Using Clip In Commercial

from the let-me-introduce-you-to-my-friend,-fair-use dept

During the Presidential campaign in 2008, we noted that CBS had sent a takedown notice for a John McCain ad that included a snippet of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. We noted that this seemed silly and a pretty clear case of fair use. While not much more ever happened in that case, in a similar situation, we now have Fox News and one of its hosts, Chris Wallace, suing Missouri Senate candidate Robin Carnahan, claiming copyright violations, invasion of privacy and misappropriation of likeness — saying that the ad implies that Wallace endorses Carnahan. Fox has also sent takedown letters to YouTube for hosting the video, though others appear to have it (for the time being).

The ad itself is pretty straightforward. It’s a clip of Chris Wallace asking a question to Carnahan’s opponent in the race, Roy Blunt from a few years ago. It’s basically Wallace saying the following:

“You just said a moment ago that you have to show that you’re the party of reform but some question whether you are the man to do that. In 2002, you tried to insert language into the Homeland Security Act to help Phillip Morris tobacco [company] while you were dating that company’s lobbyist. And your campaign committee’s paid $485,000 to a firm linked to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Are you the one to clean up the house?”

And then some tag line against Blunt. It never shows Blunt’s response. It’s difficult to see how anything about this lawsuit makes sense. First of all, the copyright claim is pretty weak. While most of the commercial is the clip, it seems like it’s quite likely this would still qualify for fair use. The idea that this implies Wallace endorsed Carnahan is a huge stretch. Nothing in the ad suggests he did at all. It’s a factual representation of what was said. Fox’s claim that this creates financial harm doesn’t make much sense. Even if (again, a huge stretch) people believe that Wallace was endorsing Carnahan, that’s got nothing to do with the financial loss from the clip itself. Case law is pretty clear that the financial loss needed in a fair use analysis involves the financial loss over what the clip itself could be licensed for — not any ancillary “costs.” And, in the very same complaint, Fox makes it clear that it wouldn’t license this clip even if the campaign had asked. Thus it seems to admit that the “financial loss” is nothing.

But, really, the bigger issue, is that in suing and sending takedowns over this video, all Fox has done is draw significantly more attention to the story itself and the negative impression of Blunt. If I had to guess, I’d say that Carnahan has never been so happy to be sued. It’s tons of free advertising on an attack ad on her opponent.

And, of course, if the video is found to be fair use — as I would bet it would be — we’ll have yet another example of how the DMCA’s takedown process is a clear violation of free speech. Even if the video is eventually allowed back online due to a counter-notice, copyright law was being used to silence political speech in the middle of a campaign.

Filed Under: chris wallace, copyright, endorsement, publicity rights, robin carnahan
Companies: fox

Why Do Politicians Keep Using Unlicensed Music In Commercials?

Why is it that politicians keep using music in commercials without getting permission first? No matter what you think of the copyright issue (and we’ll get to that), it’s amazing to me that any politician doesn’t recognize that if he or she uses a song without permission, and the musician doesn’t happen to like that politician or that politicians party or policies, that a whole news cycle will be devoted to that musician being able to bash that politician. The latest is Florida Governor, and now Senate candidate, Charlie Crist, who is being sued by former Talking Heads front-man David Byrne for one million dollars. This is similar to Jackson Browne’s lawsuit against the McCain campaign (though, in that case, the commercial wasn’t actually by the campaign, but a local party group).

Byrne keys in on the copyright issue, but seems to jump back and forth between the moral issue and the copyright issue without realizing they’re not quite the same thing:

The suit, he adds, “is not about politics…It’s about copyright and about the fact that it does imply that I would have licensed it and endorsed him and whatever he stands for.”

But, of course, in the US, we don’t have moral rights on songs like this. While it’s true that the campaign might need to license it for a commercial, Crist could easily have used it at campaign rallies (assuming the venue paid performance rights licenses) and Byrne could do nothing to stop him, no matter how upset he was that some might think he endorsed Crist’s positions.

That said, you could potentially make a pretty strong fair use case in such a commercial. It would be for political, not commercial, purposes, and it’s only a snippet of the song. Also, it’s not like the commercial is going to replace the market for the actual song, so the effect on the market should be minimal (or even potentially positive, if it reminds people of that song and gets them to go out and buy it). That said, I would imagine Byrne’s response is that it could potentially harm the market in a few ways, including the negative association of the song with a campaign, and (more convincingly) that it could potentially harm the market for Byrne to license the song to other commercial advertisements. I can see the argument either way, though I (not surprisingly) would lean towards this being fair use.

Even so, though, whether it’s fair use or not, you would think that after so many examples of this sort of thing backfiring on politicians, that they would learn to check with musicians to make sure they support the politician before using the song, just to avoid the easy headlines of “big famous musician suing politician x.”

Filed Under: charlie crist, copyright, david byrne, endorsement, fair use, moral rights, music

Jackson Browne Sues McCain For Using His Song In An Ad Without Permission

What is it with politicians who position themselves being big pro-copyright supporters being caught potentially infringing on copyright themselves? Singer Jackson Browne, who is apparently a supporter of Senator Obama’s presidential campaign, has sued Senator McCain for allegedly using a Browne song in an advertisement without permission. Of course, this isn’t as clear cut as you might believe. McCain’s campaign points out that the ad isn’t actually from the campaign. And, while it’s true that there’s no compulsory license for pairing a song with a video, this is almost certainly infringement — but Browne’s claim of an implied endorsement may not get very far, because there are ways that it’s quite likely that McCain could make use of Browne’s song without Browne’s permission.

Welcome to the bizarre, arcane, and confusing world of copyright licenses.

Depending on whether or not Browne’s music is licensed to a performance rights organization like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC (and chances are, they are), McCain’s campaign could most likely pay a royalty to them to use one of Browne’s songs at an event (if not in a commercial). And, since there is compulsory licensing on covers of songs, in theory, McCain’s campaign could have someone else cover Browne’s song at a campaign stop, and Browne wouldn’t have much he could do to stop it (again, other than make a stink out of it, getting McCain to back down). While it does seem as though there is an infringement claim here (and McCain’s campaign knows it’s not wise to turn this into a big deal), this story does highlight just how ridiculous various music licensing has become these days. Though, still, in general you would think that any political campaign (or its surrogates) would at least be a little careful to avoid using music from someone who supports the other guy — as it’s just asking for a PR headache.

Filed Under: campaigns, compulsory licensing, copyright, endorsement, jackson browne, john mccain