Category: Social Media Platforms

Government seems to be taking bigger steps toward regulating social media

Privacy is finally catching the real attention of the Government.  In a moved aimed at keeping our social media traffic private, the FTC is urging social media companies to include a do-not-track feature in their software and apps.  A NYTimes article, which is available at  http://tinyurl.com/algljc8 discusses the very real concern’s of government officials and highlights a recent FTC fine  of $800,000 issued against the neophyte social networking app, Path for violating federal regulations against collecting personal information on underaged users.  While the move seems like a good one, it also smacks of a little too much government regulation, even for this seemingly staunch anti-libertarian.

Waitress at Applebee’s Fired for Posting Receipt on Social Media Site

A server at Applebee’s received a receipt from a customer (a Pastor, apparently) which left her no tip for a party of 20 people, and read “I give God 10%, why do you get 18?”  Another waitress, trying to make the scene into something more lighthearted,  posted a picture of the receipt on her Facebook page.  She left the signature visible. Once the identity of the diner was being guessed online, the story spread, and the waitress who posted the photo was fired.

I post this, partly to follow up on my recent post about Federal Regulations prohibiting employer’s from blanket bans on employee social media postings.  If the waitress had posted the photo without the signature line visible, would she still have her job? Would she also have had to exclude the name/address of the restaurant?

 

The Government’s Ability to Read Your Email

The New York Times recently published an article entitled  “Google Says Electronic Snooping by Government Should Be More Difficult.” According to the article, “If a government wants to peek into your Web-based e-mail account, it is surprisingly easy, most of the time not even requiring a judge’s approval.” Click  here to read the article.

Till Death Do Us Part

Despite little regulation of social media and other online entities, Nebraska is contemplating what to do with your online presence once you’ve bit the dust! Interestingly, few states have passed statutes related to tortious and criminal conduct on the internet, but now Nebraska is contemplating how to send your online aura to the grave along with your cadaver. Nebraska is just one of the latest states to tackle the issue of how your executor should pull the plug on your digital personality when managing your estate.

Employer’s Attempts to Limit Employee Speech – and the NLRB’s Response

This semester, I’m writing about how social media has changed/is changing the face of employment discrimination law suits. In that vein, here’s an article from the NYTimes about how employers have attempted to limit employee speech online – regulations which have clashed with union advocates and federal regulations.

 

France to prohibit the use of #hashtags

It amazing to see just how far the French Government is willing to go to prevent Anglicization of its country. A French governmental commission, charged with assuring that Anglican words and traditions don’t infiltrate its boarders, has directed that all official French government legislation and correspondence use the word mot-diese, (meaning sharp word) in place of the familiar hashtag.   A few years back the French government was successful in changing the word email to courriel, and so there is no reason to think that the new word for hashtag might just catch on beyond the governmental mandate.  Interesting to see just how far a country can go in mandating language, without the cloak of the Constitution as a bar.

 

Want to see the UK Supreme Court’s newest decisions? Just check out YouTube

The UK Supreme Court now “publishes” its decisions on YouTube.  Most recently, the Court, under the title UKSupremeCourt, broadcast its decisions from December 19, 2012.  Shockingly, (or not) as of today, January 27, the video has only garnered 453 hits.

Check out the video here.

 

Help for Topics and Research

Hello all:

As I was figuring out what I wanted my own topic to be I came across these two websites that I wanted to share. First I would check out this website, it has helpful tabs, one of them being hot topics in social media if you are really coming up short on a topic idea. That site can be found here.

Then I would check out this website, It is a list of 320 cases from the first half of 2012 where social media evidence was used in a major way for the case (includes cases of de minimis reference to employee termination to child custody, to identifying assailants). Too bad it wasn’t updated to include all of 2012, but still, with over 300 cases to reference there should be some current cases on any topic you may choose.

Hope these are helpful for everyone in their journey to writing a pristine paper on social media!!!

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