Insurance for Social Media Liability

Whether a claim involves “bodily injury” or “property damage” is a threshold issue for coverage under Coverage A of the standard comprehensive general liability (CGL) policy and homeowners policy. Social media-related claims that allege pure emotional distress, without corresponding physical manifestations, or that allege damage to intangible property, such as intellectual property rights, may not fall within the insuring agreements of these policies. Social media claims often allege intentional conduct, if not intentional harm, which raises the threshold issue of whether the claim alleges an “occurrence” such that coverage is triggered. To the extent a social media claim falls within the policies’ insuring agreements, the next issue is whether the policies contain exclusions that might apply. Exclusions for expected or intended injury, employer’s liability, and electronic data may limit coverage for social media claims. Likewise, exclusions in homeowners policies for “bodily injury” or “property damage” arising from a home business, professional services, or physical or mental abuse may apply to common social media claims.