Billions of people use social media every day, often without fully understanding the legal implications of their activity. Posting, liking, sharing, livestreaming, or commenting can trigger not only platform moderation but also legal consequences under federal and state law. Whether you’re an individual user, influencer, small business owner, journalist, or activist, your rights on social media platforms are shaped by a complex interplay of platform policies, federal law, state statutes, and constitutional principles.
This course demystifies the legal framework around social media use. It examines what rights you actually have, what rights platforms have over your content, how your posts can expose you to liability, and what legal protections you can assert. This is not a theoretical course—it’s designed to help you navigate the real-world legal terrain of social media use with clarity, confidence, and protection.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
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Understand the legal relationship between users and social media platforms.
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Recognize how platform Terms of Service and community guidelines intersect with constitutional and statutory protections.
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Identify legal risks in posting, commenting, sharing, livestreaming, or using third-party integrations.
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Assert legal rights against unlawful censorship, defamation, harassment, or misuse of personal information.
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Understand when speech is legally protected, when it’s not, and what remedies exist.
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Strategically use legal protections to reduce personal, professional, and legal exposure while using social media.
