P1 E

P1 E- Legal and Ethical issues involved in Social Media

Using Social Media and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be a great way for people to interact and communicate with others online. However, what is shared on social media could be viewed as ‘defamatory’, meaning that you could be damaging someone’s reputation. Because of this, several companies work on dealing with the Legal and Ethical issues which may arise when using social media in today’s society.

 

Libel

Libel is a company which explores the legal viewpoint of material which can be seen as offensive or damaging to another person on social media. This also includes exploring material which can be seen to be damaging another person’s reputation. An online comment, such as a tweet, may expose someone to hatred, ridicule or contempt. It is a civil offense, meaning you cannot be arrested for this although you may be asked to pay a large fine in return. Such rules may apply to a ‘retweet’, which means that although you aren’t responsible for making the original allegation, retweeting it could be seen as an endorsement. Doing so may result in you being accused of making a defamatory statement for instance, and you could be sued.

 

Copyright

Copyright is the legal ability to copy something online; this is the legal term to describe a person’s ownership of their creative “works”. Any original piece which is created online such as a piece of writing, music or artwork is protected by Copyright Laws. Copyright protects the way an idea is expressed without including the basic idea itself. For instance, you may write a song as someone else on the same topic but you cannot copy their lyrics or tune.

Copyright protection is automatic

This means that if you were to share something online, you have the copyright for such work. Because it is automatic, it isn’t necessary to put the Copyright symbol on your work in order for you to have cover.

If you are found breaking the Copyright law online, penalties may apply. This includes the Copyright owner’s right to try and take you to court in order to receive money for your use of their Copyright material. In certain extreme circumstances, breaking a Copyright law can be considered a crime and you may need to pay a fine or even go to jail. However, criminal penalties generally apply to companies who break the Copyright law specially to copy music, videos and certain computer software.

 

Intellectual property rights

As Social Media is increasing rapidly online, it has become even more important for businesses to protect their intellectual property (IP) and look to address all such violations of IP and other rights that take place on varied portals such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It is now allowed on the internet to share content on a worldwide basis within minutes, so what was once yours and within your own ownership, could tomorrow go viral and be shared internationally without your permission or credits.

 

Copyright and Trademarks

Even for companies that acquire legal ownership of logos, names and business phrases, they need to make sure that the sectors for which they have secured exclusivity, their content is not being used elsewhere on websites, tweets, updates, videos and many other internet / social channels. It is useful to regularly check for your content online and on social media platforms and collate evidence if anything suspicious is found.

 

Bullying and Stalking Online

Cyber bullying can occur online by bullies known to you or through anonymous accounts which may depend on the channels they use. Usually leads to others being persuaded into joining in with the abuse. It is tough to stop Cyber bullying online once it has begun and even harder if the accounts presented are anonymous, meaning you are unable to track down the person behind the bullying and put a stop to it. This means you should consider different ways to make your information or accounts online private, so that people you don’t know are unable to view your content such as photos of you.

 An example used to illustrate this can clearly be found in the source below. This discovers a severe case of harassment and stalking which has previously been found to occur online.

 Source: www.cheshire.police.uk/advice-and-support/stalking-and-harassment/stalking-victim-case-study/

Don’t reveal too much information

When online you should be cautious about the information you are sharing with people, such as providing any personal or private details such as email addresses. This is especially important if you are using social media sites online as your identity and personal information are valuable to criminals. For instance, if they get hold of this information, they may be able to apply for products or services in your name if they hold a copy of your identity for example.

 

Impersonating others

Impersonating others is a serious problem online, particularly on social media. Most social media sites and other websites have anti-impersonation policies and it is therefore possible to have fake pages removed, however, often it is more serious.

Many people overshare their own private information on websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Whilst inadvisable it is not unlawful to breach your own privacy. Where an impersonator does so, however, a claim for misuse of private information is available.

Defamation is where impersonation happens then false information and statements are automatically made. Provided some of those statements are defamatory – i.e. they tend to lower the victim in the eyes of right-thinking members of the public – then a claim in defamation is made out.
Illustrated below are the clear disadvantages of impersonation online. Therefore it is clear how this issue still exists throughout social media today, despite the several ways to avoid this issue being enhanced to users often.
Source: https://nobullying.com/impersonation/