Almost every day brings a new example of something you can do online to get yourself fired. They serve as continuing reminders that the subtle seduction of social media can turn one unwise comment into a career-terminating event. Here are a few recent examples: Brown v. Montgomery County, 2011 US Dist Lexis 35811 (E.D. Pa.[...]
Roundup of Recent Social Media Sackings
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 By Brian Wassom
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: embarassment, employment, facebook, firing
Authenticating Social Media Evidence (Or, “Boozy, His Boo, and What Not to Do”)
Sunday, May 1, 2011 By Brian Wassom
In prior posts, I’ve discussed the problem of proving identity online: how do you know that someone is who they say they are online? Anyone using social media asks that question (or ought to) every time they engage in an online conversation. It might be easy to answer that question if we’re messaging with a[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: authentication, criminal, evidence, impersonation, MySpace
Going Fishing on Facebook
Thursday, April 21, 2011 By Brian Wassom
The rules of discovery in U.S. courts are intentionally quite liberal. Generally speaking, parties can “discover” (that is, force the other side or a third party to disclose) any documents or information that are relevant to any claim or defense in the lawsuit. And it doesn’t have to be admissible in court to be “relevant”;[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: discovery, facebook, MySpace, twitter
O, Be Careful, Little Facebooker, What You Like
Saturday, April 9, 2011 By Brian Wassom
There’s an old Sunday School song that begins: “O be careful little eyes what you see …” Subsequent verses caution little ears about what they hear, little hands about what they do, little feet about where they go, and little mouths about what they say. Why? Because “There’s a Father up above / And He’s[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: criminal, facebook, reasonable suspicion, relevance
While You Were Sleeping… I Infringed Your Publicity Rights on Facebook
Thursday, March 31, 2011 By Brian Wassom
It’s fairly well-understood by now that impersonation is a significant problem on the internet. How do you know that a person speaking online actually is who they say they are? Different social media sites handle the issue in their own ways. Twitter will offer certain well-known users the option of a “Verified” account. Facebook requests[...]
Filed Under: IP, Social Media Tagged With: facebook, false endorsement, impersonation, Right of Publicity, twitter, workplace
Evolving Standards of Online Decency?
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 By Brian Wassom
For as long as there has been social media (lo these handful of years), seldom a day has passed without a news story about someone’s online post getting them fired. Teenager tweeting her boredom at work? Canned. Teacher griping about students on Facebook? Fired. Professional athlete trash-talks his management online? Booted. And so on. By[...]
Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: embarrassment, facebook, twitter, workplace
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