The Legal Definition of a Twitter Follower

Twitter has become one of the most popular social media websites. In 2009, there were several highly publicized lawsuits that were based on what people have tweeted (communicated) through twitter. Until recently, to find out what has been tweeted by someone you needed to "follow" someone's twitter feed. However, search engines Google and Bing now incorporate twitter feeds in their search engine results. For those who are not familiar with Twitter, it is a form of communication limited to 140 characters and a twitter feed is analogous to the the old stock tickers on wall street.

In order to keep abreast of the information posted by a Twitter account holder another Twitter account holder needs to become a "follower" of the account holder he or she wants to follow. Becoming a "follower" of another's twitter feed only means that you now have the ability read that person's tweets. Unlike Facebook in which someone has to be accepted as a "friend" before being able to essentially follow that person's posts, Twitter does not have that same restriction.A Twitter account holder has the ability to delete unwanted followers or to protect his/her tweets from non-followers.

According to Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, the word "follower" is a noun and its top two definitions are:

1 a: one in the service of another : retainer

b: one that follows the opinions or teachings of another
c: one that imitates another
2 archaic : one that chases

I tried to unsuccessfully find a legal definition for "Twitter Follower" on Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, Black's Law Dictionary and several other online reference sources. The reason for creating a legal definition of a "Twitter Follower" is that the U.S. legal system may one day need the definition to determine possible attorney or witness conflicts of interest, alleged juror misconduct, jury tampering or connections between those involved in a legal matter.

Therefore, I propose the following legal definition for Twitter Follower:

"A person or entity who has a Twitter account who has gained access or the ability to follow or read another Twitter account holder's tweets."

Becoming a Twitter Follower of another Twitter account holder does not mean that the "Follower" or "Followee" have ever met or have any type of personal or professional relationship. For example, entertainer Ashton Kutcher has more than 4,430,000 twitter followers and he is following at least 300 other Twitter accounts. I am willing to guarantee that Mr. Kutcher does not know 99.99% of those who are following him.

Even though a person is a "Twitter Follower" of another or is a "Twitter Followee" there may not be any real connection between the Twitter account owners. To learn more about this issue you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com

Copyright 2010 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.

Tweeters Beware: Google Is Archiving All Tweets

Do you remember the scene from the movie Swingers where Jon Favreau's character Mikey makes multiple phone calls to a Nikki, a woman that he met earlier that night at the Dresden and embarrasses himself so thoroughly that she tells him to never call him again? Whether Mikey was "Drunk Dialing" or not, when the movie was made in 1996 there was not a chance of his actions being disseminated to the entire world.

Fast Forward to 2009. Now imagine if you start "Drunk Tweeting" or "Drunk Facebooking." Instead of only one person knowing about an episode in your life that you may want to forget, all Internet users may now be able to access this information because Google is now archiving all tweets. This may not only lead to future embarrassing situations, it will also drastically increase the cost of E-Discovery. As a take off from a saying that some have attributed to Mark Twain, "It is better to keep your tweets to a minimum and be thought a twit than to tweet all night and remove all doubt."

Copyright 2009 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.