Vera Brumley
Social Media Slander Blog #4
Blogspot.com/veraleann
When the Internet came into such popularity, as fast as it did, people had to know that one day it would be a means for good and evil. As blogging and Facebook continuously rise in popularity, people are stumbling clumsily upon defamatory libel statements. Defamation is defined by the spoken, or written, words falsely reflecting a subject’s life and reputation. Many instances of libel and slander occur on the net, by those wishing to damage a persons’ reputation and hurt their chances of success.
However, I believe that some people still don’t really understand that writing a negative statement in their blog could leave them with a liability case. In order to ‘set the record straight’ for the negatively influenced subject of the blog, the person responsible for writing or taping the statement will be prosecuted accordingly. A growing problem with these liability cases is that there has to be undeniable proof that the blogger actually made the post in a hurtful manner – the moment proof is shown, the case is much stronger and can achieve a solution to the presented issues.
Nowadays, blogging has become a very common and popular way to share your ideas with the world. Online Blogs have even become somewhat of a trusted source for experience with products, services, and restaurants. Anyone can quickly create a blog and share with the world their thoughts and talents, however it sadly seems more popular to talk smack and spread rumors around. I would like to think this is only the case with younger kids, but my research has proven otherwise.
I read about a woman who was fired from her job because of her active blogging life. Her blog, Dooce.com reflected her graphic design skills and artistry talents. She was very vocal about products and services – her coworkers were also very aware of her online blog site. After being fired, she didn’t fight it or attempt to threaten him for wrongful termination. She wrote more in her blog about it.
As we talked about in class, it is worrisome to have such a personal blog online for the world to see. Especially, when employers find it very useful to keep tabs and research on potential or current employees. When an employee for a large firm blogs via company technological means, does the company stand to be liable for those words? Can they then rightfully terminate that employee? Yes, they can be liable – yes, they can fire them.
After researching Heather Armstrong further, the writer of dooce.com, I found she was chosen as one of Forbes’ 30 Most Influential Women in Media. Her main contribution includes the idea that social media should be used as the strongest kind of Word-of-Mouth. She spoke mostly about incidents in which she was extremely dissatisfied with a product or service – so she tweeted about it. In the case of a certain product, they actually completely reinstalled a brand new product for her free of charge. Now, she encourages this for social media usage even though there are still possibilities for mean or slanderous statements. According to Heather Armstrong, the issues in our social media are not dealing with the freedom of speech amendment – they are, simply put, ‘a brave new world’.
Social Media leaves a person very vulnerable to be slandered against or to commit, possibly unknowingly, libelous slander. I believe that the Internet is a great online tool that strengthens our opportunities and friendships. However, it is proving more and more each day to be used very negatively towards people. Is it just our nature to continuously increase negativity instead of the positive? Well, research shows that people are far more interested in tragic news as opposed to good news reports.
According to some law officials, the issues of teenagers harassing and ‘bullying’ via social media sites like Facebook or Twitter have risen dramatically. Some kids have been slandered and harassed so much that they have become medically depressed or even committed suicide. What is so hard about these cases, they say, is that many things said about other kids are hard to prove and actually pin on a certain person. These are the cases that stand out to me when looking at slander and libel in our social media setting.
We talked in class Monday about not being able to do anything on the Internet without someone finding you out (or tracing it back to you). In this day and age, there are so many ways to trace IP addresses and Internet actions. However, if we cannot prove actual malicious intent of a person, it does not matter what we can trace back to their IP web address.
In any case, I still believe in the positivity of social media, mostly because I cannot survive without my Facebook and Twitter. But there are still too many positive things that come out of it. Can we really let a few bad apples ruin it for everyone? The Internet has become overrun with advertising and ways for companies to reach this digital world, but social media routes may not be the smartest route to take.
Sources:
1. Defamation And Slander On The Internet
By Nicholas Deleault
2. Slander or Satire? When does social media cross legal lines? (http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/slander_or_satire_when_does_social_media_cross_legal_lines/)
3. Social Media Warning after teen is slandered
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