On April 29, 2010, I blogged that the Social Media Privacy Protection is in the works. This bill has not yet been passed; however, I think this type of legislation will eventually be enacted because up until this point the online business community has not done enough to police itself.
On July 22, 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a hearing regarding how online service providers handle user information. During the session, online industry leaders asked Congress to act in a manner that will be flexible enough to address the rapid advances in digital media. On July 27, 2010, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will have a full committee hearing on consumer online privacy. Representatives from Apple, Facebook, Google, and AT&T are scheduled to testify.
Capital Hill's interest in electronic media privacy issues has made the online business community realize that it must do a better job of being proactive than reactive to privacy issues. Unfortunately, it has taken the threat of congressional action for Internet service providers and online service providers to realize that consumers still highly value their privacy.
I believe these hearings are long overdue. However, I think it would be a mistake for Congress to overreact and draft legislation that hampers innovation. Therefore, if Congress decides to act I hope it is in a manner that offers consumers and businesses the privacy they desire without harming the online community's ability to create cutting edge technological advances.
To learn more about online privacy issues and how to monetize your social media assets you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Maryland's Social Media Election Regulations Are a Model For the Rest of the U.S.
This past week, the state of Maryland passed social media election regulations that require candidates for state political office to include an authority line on all of their campaign social media accounts. Maryland is technically the second state in the country, behind Florida, to officially address social media usage in state political campaigns. However, Maryland is the first state to proactively create social media regulations before its election board was forced to do so because of litigation.
Social media election regulations are needed so that voters are able to determine whether a social media account they are viewing is part of a candidate's official campaign. Of the most widely utilized social media platforms, only Twitter has a process that officially verifies accounts. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether the page you are viewing is created by or on behalf of a person, an entity, or an activity.
Under Maryland's new regulations, social media is to be treated in the same manner as other campaign material and communication. From a conceptual standpoint, social media is an online extension of a candidate's television, radio, or print advertisements. Due to the drastic increase of social media usage since the last election cycle, it was time for political social media campaign utilization to be regulated. It is only a matter of time before the Federal Election Commission decides to regulate social media for federal campaigns.
I worked with Maryland's State Board of Elections ("Board") to draft Maryland's new social media election regulations. In June, the Board voted 4-0 to pass the regulations and earlier this week a committee of state lawmakers voted 11-1 to implement the new regulations for this upcoming election cycle. The regulations received bipartisan political support and they were also supported by the social media business community. The almost unanimous support from all of these stakeholders apparently means that I was successful at working with the Board to draft fair and balanced rules.
The regulations are not onerous on candidates and are inexpensive to follow. Also, they do not have any additional requirements that go beyond what is required for other forms of campaign media. The only drawback with the new regulations is that they do not teach candidates how to utilize social media. From my review of some of Maryland's major political candidates' social media accounts, it is apparent that politicians in Maryland need the assistance of a social media lawyer to teach them how to better deploy their social media assets.
To learn how to abide by Maryland's social media election regulations and to successfully deploy social media in your campaign you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Social media election regulations are needed so that voters are able to determine whether a social media account they are viewing is part of a candidate's official campaign. Of the most widely utilized social media platforms, only Twitter has a process that officially verifies accounts. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether the page you are viewing is created by or on behalf of a person, an entity, or an activity.
Under Maryland's new regulations, social media is to be treated in the same manner as other campaign material and communication. From a conceptual standpoint, social media is an online extension of a candidate's television, radio, or print advertisements. Due to the drastic increase of social media usage since the last election cycle, it was time for political social media campaign utilization to be regulated. It is only a matter of time before the Federal Election Commission decides to regulate social media for federal campaigns.
I worked with Maryland's State Board of Elections ("Board") to draft Maryland's new social media election regulations. In June, the Board voted 4-0 to pass the regulations and earlier this week a committee of state lawmakers voted 11-1 to implement the new regulations for this upcoming election cycle. The regulations received bipartisan political support and they were also supported by the social media business community. The almost unanimous support from all of these stakeholders apparently means that I was successful at working with the Board to draft fair and balanced rules.
The regulations are not onerous on candidates and are inexpensive to follow. Also, they do not have any additional requirements that go beyond what is required for other forms of campaign media. The only drawback with the new regulations is that they do not teach candidates how to utilize social media. From my review of some of Maryland's major political candidates' social media accounts, it is apparent that politicians in Maryland need the assistance of a social media lawyer to teach them how to better deploy their social media assets.
To learn how to abide by Maryland's social media election regulations and to successfully deploy social media in your campaign you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Georgia's New Bullying Law May Have Some Unintended Social Media Consequences
According to the Augusta Chronicle, the public school board in Richmond County, Georgia is banning almost all social media utilization by students on school computers for this upcoming school year. Students will only be allowed to utilize social media from public school computers if the usage it is part of their curriculum. This new ban is in response to a new law state law, The Georgia Bullying Law, O.C.G.A. 20-2-751.4 that goes into effect for the 2011-2012 school year.
I commend Georgia for their efforts to address bullying. At first blush, this new law appears to be a great idea. Its intentions are to stop a very troubling problem that may have long term negative consequences on those who are affected by bullying. However, while reviewing the new law I realized that the definition of bullying may be problematic. For example, O.C.G.A. 20-2-751.4 (a) states, "[a]s used in this Code section, the term 'bullying' means an act which occurs on school property, on school vehicles, at designated school bus stops, or at school related functions or activities, or by use of data or software that is accessed through a computer, computer system, computer network, or other electronic technology of a local school system,..."
The law's language covers the use of school owned electronic equipment and it may also apply to personal owned hand held devices. With the proliferation of mobile devices such as Blackberries or iPhones it will be very difficult and extremely expensive to enforce this new law because school officials may now have to determine where a Facebook post, Twitter update, or other social media communication occurred and the post's intent. There may also be some First Amendment challenges to this new law due to its broad definition of "bullying".
Social media postings by students are the modern day equivalent of passing notes and writing on the walls of the bathroom stalls in schools. The biggest differences between "old school" student communication and Social Media Age student communication is that the postings on social media generally have a much larger audience.
Implementing this new law may end up costing the taxpayers of Georgia more than they anticipated because it appears that it may provide authorities the ability to start subpoenaing family phone records and social media account records to determine who made a social media post and when and where the post was made. In addition, there are social media account authentication issues that will have to be addressed.
I believe that it would be more effective to educate students on proper social media manners and usage. This may be done via social media classroom instruction or by having an outside expert discuss social media issues with students. Legislating without education will not solve the problem. Education is the most powerful tool that can be provided to a student. Therefore, I urge Georgia to amend this new law before unintended consequences occur.
To learn how to educate students about the proper ways to utilize social media you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
I commend Georgia for their efforts to address bullying. At first blush, this new law appears to be a great idea. Its intentions are to stop a very troubling problem that may have long term negative consequences on those who are affected by bullying. However, while reviewing the new law I realized that the definition of bullying may be problematic. For example, O.C.G.A. 20-2-751.4 (a) states, "[a]s used in this Code section, the term 'bullying' means an act which occurs on school property, on school vehicles, at designated school bus stops, or at school related functions or activities, or by use of data or software that is accessed through a computer, computer system, computer network, or other electronic technology of a local school system,..."
The law's language covers the use of school owned electronic equipment and it may also apply to personal owned hand held devices. With the proliferation of mobile devices such as Blackberries or iPhones it will be very difficult and extremely expensive to enforce this new law because school officials may now have to determine where a Facebook post, Twitter update, or other social media communication occurred and the post's intent. There may also be some First Amendment challenges to this new law due to its broad definition of "bullying".
Social media postings by students are the modern day equivalent of passing notes and writing on the walls of the bathroom stalls in schools. The biggest differences between "old school" student communication and Social Media Age student communication is that the postings on social media generally have a much larger audience.
Implementing this new law may end up costing the taxpayers of Georgia more than they anticipated because it appears that it may provide authorities the ability to start subpoenaing family phone records and social media account records to determine who made a social media post and when and where the post was made. In addition, there are social media account authentication issues that will have to be addressed.
I believe that it would be more effective to educate students on proper social media manners and usage. This may be done via social media classroom instruction or by having an outside expert discuss social media issues with students. Legislating without education will not solve the problem. Education is the most powerful tool that can be provided to a student. Therefore, I urge Georgia to amend this new law before unintended consequences occur.
To learn how to educate students about the proper ways to utilize social media you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Social Media Defamation
According to Law.com's online legal dictionary, the definition of defamation is: "the act of making untrue statements about another which damages his/her reputation. If the defamatory statement is printed or broadcast over the media it is libel and, if only oral, it is slander. Public figures, including officeholders and candidates, have to show that the defamation was made with malicious intent and was not just fair comment. Damages for slander may be limited to actual (special) damages unless there is malice. Some statements such as an accusation of having committed a crime, having a feared disease or being unable to perform one's occupation are called libel per se or slander per se and can more easily lead to large money awards in court and even punitive damage recovery by the person harmed. Most states provide for a demand for a printed retraction of defamation and only allow a lawsuit if there is no such admission of error."
In the Social Media Age, libel and slander can be devastating to a person or the reputation of a business. There are numerous web sites that allow consumers and other third parties to post comments about a business or a person. Under Section 230 of the Communciations Decency Act, ISPs generally have immunity from all information posted on their websites by third party users if they meet a three pronged legal test.
On July 8, 2010, the Lebron James sweepstakes ended when James decided to sign a new contract with the Miami Heat. His old employer, the Cleveland Cavaliers was devastated. Dan Gilbert, the Cavaliers' owner posted an open letter to Cleveland's fans that bashed James. The letter contains Gilbert's opinion and does not appear to libel James. However, in an interview with the Associated Press it appears that Gilbert may have slandered James by stating, "He [James] quit, Not just in Game 5 [In the 2010 playoffs], but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar." In general, libel and slander lawsuits are more difficult for celebrities to win than for those who are not in the public eye.
James had fulfilled his contract and had no legal obligation to continue to work for the Cleveland Cavaliers. That being said, both James and Gilbert could have handled the situation in a more professional manner. James should not have requested the one hour ESPN special to announce that he was leaving Cleveland and signing with Miami. However, Gilbert's reaction to James' decision does not make him a sympathetic figure and it may have caused him some legal liability. The bottom line is that in the Social Media Age every writen or spoken word can be easily disseminated around the world in seconds. Therefore, every time a company communicates with the media it needs to understand both the public relations and legal ramifications of its message.
To learn how to avoid social media defamation you may contact me at http://www.shearlaw.com/.
Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
In the Social Media Age, libel and slander can be devastating to a person or the reputation of a business. There are numerous web sites that allow consumers and other third parties to post comments about a business or a person. Under Section 230 of the Communciations Decency Act, ISPs generally have immunity from all information posted on their websites by third party users if they meet a three pronged legal test.
On July 8, 2010, the Lebron James sweepstakes ended when James decided to sign a new contract with the Miami Heat. His old employer, the Cleveland Cavaliers was devastated. Dan Gilbert, the Cavaliers' owner posted an open letter to Cleveland's fans that bashed James. The letter contains Gilbert's opinion and does not appear to libel James. However, in an interview with the Associated Press it appears that Gilbert may have slandered James by stating, "He [James] quit, Not just in Game 5 [In the 2010 playoffs], but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar." In general, libel and slander lawsuits are more difficult for celebrities to win than for those who are not in the public eye.
James had fulfilled his contract and had no legal obligation to continue to work for the Cleveland Cavaliers. That being said, both James and Gilbert could have handled the situation in a more professional manner. James should not have requested the one hour ESPN special to announce that he was leaving Cleveland and signing with Miami. However, Gilbert's reaction to James' decision does not make him a sympathetic figure and it may have caused him some legal liability. The bottom line is that in the Social Media Age every writen or spoken word can be easily disseminated around the world in seconds. Therefore, every time a company communicates with the media it needs to understand both the public relations and legal ramifications of its message.
To learn how to avoid social media defamation you may contact me at http://www.shearlaw.com/.
Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
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