Tag: Social Media

Social Media Strikes Again: Teens Charged With Making OnlineThreats Against Steubenville Rape Victim

There is no doubt that Social Media played an important role in the Steubenville Rape Case.   In fact, the prosecution would have had a significantly weaker case had it not been for the several tweets, videos, and pictures exchanged among students regarding the events that occurred.  It is disgraceful that young students would commit such a horrific act, and then brag about it through social networking sites.  It is even more troublesome, that the numerous students who viewed these tweets, pictures, and video did not report the incident.  Many would hope that young students would learn from this incident and the implications Social Networking Sites may have if used irresponsibly.  However, that is not that case for two teenage girls who used Social Media to threaten the young victim in the Steubenville Rape Case following the verdict.  A 16-year-old girl is charged with aggravated menacing after using Twitter to threaten the life of the victim, and a 15-year-old girl is charged with one count of menacing after making a threat on Facebook.

What will it take for young students to realize that their actions on Social Media sites have real life consequences?

Research for Paper Topics

Hello all, as I was attempting to find some research for my own topic involving social media and matrimonial law I cam across this article titled, “INVASION CONTRACTS: THE PRIVACY IMPLICATIONS OF TERMS OF USE AGREEMENTS IN THE ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA SETTING” cited as Jared S. Livingston, Invasion Contracts: The Privacy Implications of Terms of Use Agreements in the Online Social Media Setting, 21 Alb. L.J. Sci. & Tech. 591 (2011). Although this is not related to my own topic, I do know that someone in class was talking about this being a part of this topic so I figured I would post it for all who may be interested or writing about user agreements and you can find the article on Westlaw or Lexus. Hope you are all having a great monday!

New York City Restaurants Banning Food Photography

Do you take pictures of your food at restaurants? Plan on taking a picture of your Valentine’s Day dinner? You might be banned from taking that picture this Valentine’s Day. This is because New York City restaurant owners are banning food photography by customers. The restaurant owners don’t want people  posting pictures of their food on social media sites.  Is this fair? Should the practice be banned?  Read the CBS News story here, and comment on this post with your thoughts.

More States Consider Social Media Privacy Bills

The concept of legislatively limiting employer access to employee social media traffic is gaining traction.  Legislators in Georgia, Montana and North Dakota are considering bills similar to the one already adopted by the Illinois legislature.  The bills would restrict employers from researching social media sights as a means of gaining additional insights about employees and/or employee candidates.  More information about the potential laws is available here.

Are these bills innovative or are they just a natural extension of the HR workplace rules that prohibit, say, asking a candidate is she is pregnant?

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?

 

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.

What do we mean when we say social media?

The Dayton Business Journal recently published the list of the top ten most visited social media websites. The list was compiled based on total number of visits.  No big surprise with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in the top three spots.  Interesting to me was that Pintrest ranked fourth and that two relatively new sites, MeetMe and Tagged, scored pretty high up there, bumping Yelp at the same time.  Nothing much legal about a list of sites, but I think it interesting to have a sense of just what we are speaking of when we say “social media.”

Judge Probably Wants to Call an Audible

Johnny Manziel, also known as “Johnny Football” won the Heisman trophy in his freshman year, the quickest ever to do so. He also  is pretty quick on the road. He received a speeding ticket after the season ended. What makes this story interesting is that we found out about the speeding ticket because Judge W. Lee posted the news on his Facebook account.

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