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The First Amendment (Literally) Banned in DC

Can the government ban the text of the First Amendment itself on municipal transit ads because free speech is too “political” for public display? If this sounds like some ridiculous brain teaser, it should. But unfortunately it’s not.


DeVry Will Refund $100 Million to Students to Settle FTC Lawsuit

DeVry University will pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged its ads misled prospective students, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. The money will go back to tens of thousands of students that attended DeVry between 2008 and 2015. Some will be reimbursed with cash and others will receive debt relief.


Lawsuit Accuses Facebook of Violating 1964 Civil Rights Act

A class action lawsuit filed in California last week accuses Facebook of violating key civil rights laws after it was discovered that the social media company has a feature that allows advertisers to target users by race and ethnicity. Facebook has a self-service advertising page, which offers many different marketing functions. One of the features allows for advertisers to “EXCLUDE people” and …




Advertisements Play Role in Class Actions Following Ovarian Cancer Study, Verdict

An uptick in the filing of class-action lawsuits stemming from a study linking talc to ovarian cancer can be largely traced to advertisements aired by personal injury attorneys in the wake of a recent verdict, according to Julie Griffiths of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA). Johnson & Johnson was recently hit with a $72 million verdict in a case filed by the family …


A Bunch of Big US Websites Say They’re Likely to Support Legal Action Against Ad Blockers

It looks like US website owners are prepared to take ad blockers to court. A number of “high traffic” websites in the US say they are likely to support legal action to ward off the threat of ad blockers, according to a new report. Research firm Medianomics carried out a survey of 42 websites and multi-site networks which represent an aggregate 2.2 billion visits per month — ranging from sites with 6 million to 10 million visitors, to those attracting 450 million monthly visitors — to assess which tactics they are likely to use in order to address the impact of ad blockers. …


Advocates Urge Court to Reconsider Facebook’s $20 Million ‘Sponsored Stories’ Settlement

The University of San Diego’s Children’s Advocacy Institute is asking a federal appellate court to reconsider its recent decision upholding Facebook’s $20 million “sponsored stories” settlement. The watchdog, which is part of the law school’s Center for Public Interest Law, says the settlement will empower Facebook to “capture, rearrange and republish” posts by children. “It allows capture of …


Father Urges Court to Strike Down Facebook’s $20 Million Privacy Settlement

Parents post photos of their kids every day on Facebook. It’s safe to assume most don’t expect the social network to then collect these images, and use them in its ads. But according to a class-action case brought against the company in 2011, that’s exactly what happened when Facebook took data and images from users under 18 and used them in “Sponsored Story” ads.


Yahoo Said to Be Considering Sale, Unrelated Report Claims Company Has Massive Ad Fraud Problem

A month ago, Yahoo announced that its board of directors had unanimously decided to suspend work on the pending plan announced earlier last year to spin off Yahoo’s remaining holdings in Alibaba. It said the board would now evaluate “alternative transaction structures to separate the Alibaba stake, focusing specifically on a reverse of the previously announced spin transaction.” It went on to …