Free speech: School district struggle to regulate student-teacher contact on social media

As the social media becomes a useful tool for teachers to contact students about work or to help reluctant or shy students, abuses have surfaced with teachers making inappropriate contact leading in some cases to sexual abuse. Citing free speech issues, a Missouri judge recently threw out a new law banning contact on the social [...]

New Jersey teacher’s job in jeopardy over Facebook post disparaging students

A New Jersey elementary school teacher may lose her job for calling her students “future criminals.” An administrative law judge said she should be fired. The teacher intended that her comments be seen only by  her Facebook friends. -db From a commentary in Mobiledia, November 11, 2011, by Janet Maragioglio. Full story  

Schools struggle to balance free speech rights with responsible use of social media

Delaware schools and schools across the country are crafting policies to encourage responsible use of the social media but in doing so often run head on into the First Amendment. Many educators and free speech advocates see the need to educated students at an early age to the consequences of cyberbullying and other questionable uses [...]

Pennsylvania schools want U.S. Supreme Court to clarify issues involving student speech on Internet

Two Pennsylvania school districts have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a review of decisions holding that the schools violated the First Amendment rights of students by punishing them for criticizing their principals on the social media. There are several issues the school want addressed including whether the schools can regulate off-campus speech including vulgarities [...]

Opinion: Complicated student speech case not ideal for U.S. Supreme Court

A columnist for Justia argues that the U.S. Supreme Court should not take the case of Kara Kowalski suing her high school for suspending her for the mean comments she made at home about a fellow student on MySpace. The columnist notes that Kowalski speech involved the bullying of another student so that if the [...]

Online posting: Student speech subject to greater regulation after Supreme Court refuses to hear case

The U.S. Supreme Court left standing a lower court ruling supporting the punishment of a high school student for criticizing a decision by school officials in a vulgar online posting. By ruling not to hear the case, the Court sidestepped an opportunity to establish guidelines for regulation of student speech in social media forums. -db [...]

Free speech: Los Angeles policeman posts photo of dead boy on Twitter

When a Los Angeles police detective posted a photo of a murder victim on Twitter, questions arose about the propriety of the post and the policeman’s free speech rights. Even though the Los Angeles Police Department does not have a policy on the use of social media, they asked the detective to forego posting details [...]

Free speech: Mexican citizens murdered for using Internet to speak out against drug violence

Mexican drug cartels are murdering journalists and bloggers using the Internet and social media to protest the cartels’ drug-related violence. The Electronic Freedom Foundation makes some suggestions for Mexican citizens who want to continue the protests, “EFF recommends that bloggers who are concerned about their security and safety should post under a pseudonym, use Tor [...]

National poll: Newspapers still providing critical local coverage

A study by Pew Research revealed that Americans still rely on newspapers for local coverage of crime, community events, housing, jobs, schools and government. They turn to TV for weather, breaking news and traffic and the Internet for restaurants, night life and local businesses. -db From a commentary for The Poynter Institute, September 26, 2011, [...]

Expert panel says too early to assess role of social media in Arab spring

Panelists at the U.S. Institute of Peace addressed the role of social media in recent uprisings in the Arab world with some saying that the use of social media was part of a power shift from nation states to smaller groups. Others said the information about the social media is still too mixed and scattered [...]

Mexican citizens held for ‘Twitter terrorism’

Two Mexican citizens were arrested in Veracruz for  reporting on Twitter something they heard,  that a drug gang had attacked a primary school and conducted a kidnapping. It turns out that the report was untrue and caused a panic and over twenty car accidents as parents rushed to get their kids out of class. The [...]

Facebook bans no impediment to students

School administrators are no match for tech savvy students as students simply use proxy servers to get around Facebook bans. Schools are trying to limit social media sites to get students to concentrate on their educations, but a ban on sites are ineffective. Some students, though, have been known to stay at school to do [...]

California law orders jurors to cool it on social media

A new California law scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2012 prohibits jurors from using texting, social media or the Internet to research or to distribute information about cases in trial. There have been numerous instances of juror misconduct that made the law necessary. Then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year. [...]

Social media forces emergency responders to provide more information

With a proliferation of social media sites, emergency responders are getting more information from the public presenting new challenges. For one, government agencies feel the need to conduct themselves with greater transparency to build trust. Sifting out fact from fiction is also a problem, and a former Wyoming governor has suggested that the social media [...]

Journalists beware: Tweets can be libelous

Contrary to common-held belief that Tweets are ephemeral and not subject to libel law, statements on Twitter are fair game for libel suits say legal experts. So far there have been few suits, but as public use and awareness of Twitter increases, libel cases are expected to increase. So far observers could only come up [...]

EFF argues anti-stalking law a threat to online speech

The Electric Freedom Foundation issued a press release arguing that using the federal anti-stalking law to prosecute people for criticizing public figures on Twitter threatens First Amendment rights to online free speech. The  federal law was  enacted to criminalize traveling across state lines for the purpose of stalking but now is being to stifle speech. [...]

A&A:High school impeaches student president over Facebook rant

Q: My daughter was featured on the top most headline of the local newspaper this last Saturday. She has been stripped of her ELECTED position as President of her High School because of an off-hand comment she made on a chat on Facebook. We are looking to anyone that can help us and a lawyer [...]

Journalists developing practices for verifying information from social media

Journalists are now developing ways to verify social media content and citizen reports, says Craig Silverman in the Columbia Journalism Review. He cites a number of experts and the tips that constitute best practices. The tips include researching a source’s background for a record of reliability, using Google street, map and satellite imagery to verify [...]

United Kingdom: Courts battle social media in flap over soccer star’s alleged affair

A British soccer star obtained a court order forbidding the traditional news media from publishing details of his alleged affair with a “Big Brother” contestant, but the effect 0f the injunction waxed small in the wake of some 75,00o weekend postings about the affair on the social media. The judge stubbornly reaffirmed the need for [...]

Multiple sources including those on Twitter pose challenges for journalists

As one journalist described it, he has “a personalized wire service” of over 2,000 sources on Twitter who provide him with tips and on-location news reports. While this sort of access is of inestimable value, it present immense difficulties as well. Writing in GigaOM, Mathew Ingram says that with gathering so much information on the [...]

Legislator seeks to set privacy rules for Facebook

A state senator from San Leandro has introduced legislation that would require Facebook and other social networking sites to let new users establish privacy settings at the same time they register. State Sen. Ellen Corbett, a Democrat, argues that users shouldn’t have to give up their private information by default. Opponents object to government imposition [...]

WikiLeaks founder says social media operate as tools for U.S. intelligence

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called Facebook the “most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented.” Assange pointed out that a trove of information about people, their relationships, conversations and locations exists on the social media and that U.S. intelligence agencies could bring pressure on Facebook, Yahoo, Google and others to extract that information. -db [...]

Website for using social media to build stories open to public

The website Storify that allows users to accumulate information from the social media to build stories is now available to the public. Users can combine content with commentary and also add their own text. Reporters have used the tool to report on the Middle East uprisings and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford. -db From [...]

Exiles use Internet to promote Syrian revolt

Anti-government activists living in the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. are taking a leading role in using the Internet to defy the autocratic Syrian government in providing news of the uprising to the world. Writing in The New York Times, Anthony Shadid described the work of one man, “Gaunt and with bloodshot blue-green eyes, [...]

Free speech: Police officer gets desk duty over indiscreet posting on Facebook

Free speech rights of police officers in the social media are clashing with their law enforcement responsibilities as illustrated by a recent case in Albuquerque where a police officer listed his occupation on Facebook as “human waste disposal.” A TV station discovered the gaffe after the officer was involved in a fatal off-duty shooting in February. In [...]

Facebook offering resources to journalists to help them make greater use of the social network

Following Twitter’s example, Facebook has plans to help journalists use the network to greater advantage. It wants to provide more information on its service to make it more than just a social site. Facebook has launched a page that will be a resource for journalists with “best practices” showing how reporters have used Facebook effectively [...]

Political turmoil: Social media face challenges in remaining neutral

Social media sites are struggling to achieve the right balance in remaining neutral during the Middle East and North Africa uprisings and allowing freedom of expression. A recent case in which Flickr removed photos of officers from Egypt’s state security force demonstrated the difficulties. Is it feasible in some instances to remain neutral when people [...]

Libel rules with impunity on social network

The younger generation is filing few libel suits for such as lies and character assassination, fueling speculation that they have greater tolerance of “hurly, burly Internet conversation.” Or is it just that young people realize that bloggers have limited resources, decimating the chances of obtaining damages? -db From the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, March 14, [...]

Japanese disaster shows limits of citizen journalism

In viewing video of the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake, MediaPost’s Erik Sass says the most valuable footage came from professional news organizations. The pros were able to use traffic helicopters to focus on the most important developments such as the advancing tsunami and fires while amateurs tended to try to film too much and [...]

Effect of social media underestimated in creating social change

In the Toronto Star, Don Tapscott argues that the social media is an important tool for fostering democracy in that citizens can alert millions of people about injustices and social ills, and in the case of Tunesia and Egypt, weak ties between people on Facebook can lead to the stronger ties necessary to bring change. [...]

Social media the new revolutionary pamphlet

While conceding that the social media did not cause the Egyptian revolution, Sam Gustin in Wired writes that the social media made significant contributions to the revolution’s success, a development that offers hope to repressed peoples of the Middle East. Gustin quotes Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative: “In the same [...]

Ambulance company settles with NLRB over employee’s Facebook posting

American Medical Response of Connecticut agreed to settle a suit brought by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after the company fired an employee for criticizing her boss and calling him derogatory names on Facebook. The NLRB contended that the firing was illegal in that employees have the right to discuss workplace issues with fellow [...]

Egypt shuts down Internet in record time

Los Angeles Times January 29, 2011 With a few phone calls to the likes of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the Egyptian government  stymied the social media, effectively limiting its role in organizing the demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak. -db

Legal action over employee use of social media mounts

The Wall Street Journal Analysis January 21, 2011 By Jeanette Borzo When companies dismiss employees for what they consider harmful use of social media, the dismissals can backfire on the companies involving them in expensive lawsuits and damaging their reputations. -db

Internet a battleground in Tunisia

Wired Commentary January 14, 2011 By Nate Anderson of Ars Technica Citizens are using the social media in quest to oust the corrupt government in Tunisia, and the government is fighting back, blocking websites and using the Internet to identify activists. -db

Federal law may save woman fired for Facebook comments about company and supervisor

All agree that an employee making critical remarks on Facebook about her company and supervisor violated company policy, but did the company violate federal labor law by firing the woman? -db Citizens Media Law Project Commentary December 24, 2010 By Andrew Mirsky A Connecticut company suspended and then fired an employee for making disparaging comments [...]

Congressional committee attempts censorship of professor’s criticism of Facebook

A chair of a Congressional committee cautioned a law professor about to speak to the committee  to refrain from personal attacks against any companies or company employees. -db Onlne Media Daily Commentary December 3, 2010 By Wendy Davis Columbia Law professor Eben Moglen seemed to have touched a nerve on Capitol Hill this week when [...]

Current information overload not without precedent

Five centuries years ago, a new technology, the printing press, spawned a deluge of books. Mankind responded with innovations for making sense of the information flood. -db Boston Globe Commentary November 28, 2010 By Ann Blair Worry about information overload has become one of the drumbeats of our time. The world’s books are being digitized, [...]

Free speech: Teachers sue Florida school district for social media policy

Some Florida teachers are suing their district in state court on the grounds that a proposed Manatee school district policy violates their free speech rights by prohibiting social media postings of negative comments or photos about the district, employees or students from home or work computers. -db Bradenton Herald November 13, 2010 By Richard Dymond [...]

Media law expert questions college ban on athletes’ tweets

Public and private universities are increasingly limiting players’ use of social media that one expert says constitutes in most cases illegal prior restraint and a violation of their free speech rights. -db Citizen Media Law Center Commentary November 9, 2010 By Eric P. Robinson An exercise we did Friday at University of Nevada, Reno’s High School [...]

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