Just like much of the content on the internet, fake news is funded largely by advertising.  Therefore, this week Facebook announced that pages that share “fake news,” or false stories masquerading as truth, will no longer be allowed to advertise on its platform.  The goal is straightforward:  to punish pages that link to stories that are marked as “false” by third-party fact-checkers from making money. 

First, the good news:  Last month, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development announced that the pending private right of action under the Canadian Anti-SPAM Law (CASL) would be delayed indefinitely—this was initially scheduled to come into effect on July 1, 2017.  As many of us pointed out back when the law was enacted, unleashing the threat of frivolous litigation is likely to punish innocent companies to the tune of millions of dollars—in most cases companies that are trying to comply—while enriching trial attorneys and stifling many of the desirable email communications citizens have come to expect and appreciate. In the statement announcing the delay, Navdeep Bains, the Canadian Minister, noted that while “Canadians deserve to be protected from spam and other electronic threats so that they can have confidence in digital technology,” the Canadian government is “committed to striking the right balance&rd ...

Online advertising is an increasingly important source of revenue for online content creators, who include professional journalists to web developers to bloggers and provide tremendous value to the Internet ecosystem. To remain afloat, these content creators rely on effective online advertising in order to continue to provide their service or business.

Two years after holding a workshop on “native advertising,” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) has issued an enforcement policy statement and guidance for businesses on how to utilize native or sponsored content without crossing the line into deceptive advertising.