BFTP: Anything you tweet may be held against you
Saturday, September 13, 2014 at 07:52AM This morning's local paper re-ran a story from the San Jose Mercury News about a teacher tweeting violent thoughts about students. Nasty, nasty. Let's all pause and review Guidelines for Educators Using Social and Educational Networking Sites. And some of us should also do a little introspection about whether teaching is a good career choice for us. Anyway, this post is now about 5 years old. The more things change...
From You have the right to remain silent..and tweetless, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, August 20, 2009:
"Any thing you say, tweet, blog or post can and will be used against you" in the court of public discourse -- and that includes potential legal challenges.
"People tend to use Twitter and Facebook as if they were engaged in casual conversation and think they don't create legal risk; they are wrong," said William McGeveran, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who focuses on digital issues. "They don't realize their statements are public, archived and searchable."
The rest of the article is worth reading and sharing with staff and students.
So for those of you plotting your next bank job, assassination, or extra-marital rendezvous, just use the phone like I do. [Just kidding, Mom.]
Reader Comments (2)
Kate Torgovnick May wrote in her May 2013 TEDblog about one's "digital tattoo." I counsel my students that the posts they share, the tweets they create, and yes, even the Snapchats and Instagrams they quickly send out, are all building a presence and a reputation of them. I suggest the granny test: "Would you want your granny to see you send that?"
Interesting talk! Thanks for sharing.
Doug