From personal experience recently, I realized many who use social media to air complaints, grievances or in essence of their message yell “fire” in a crowded theater still expect their rights to be protected. That vein of thought led me to where does social media fall in terms of our rights?  Free press or free speech?

 Is social media a publication?  Arguments could be made to see that perspective, however, with most social media, the message is intended for a select view, a specific list of followers, friends or even simple comments to authors and owners of articles and blogs.  Publishing personal comments on the internet does not meet the legal requirement of the definition of press.   I think “press” as intended by the Bill of Rights is of an organized nature protecting reporters, editors, publishers from government interference.

 Individual citizens of our country see freedom of speech as the most important right granted to us by the Bill of Rights.  But this past month two instances of comments made in social media were not accepted as something anyone can say and get away with it.

 A real estate dispute played out on Twitter to the detriment of the landlord.  Even if made in jest, there are things that should not be commented on in the public realm of social media. And, this is not the first or last lawsuit involving tweets. Comments to news stories on the internet got yanked because they were invalid and disparaging to the organization in the article.  The news organization agreed to pull the comments from public view until such time that points made could be validated. 

 Slander and libel are taking place via social media outlets and mass emails. People are finally realizing you can’t just say or write anything you want to infringe on the rights of others.  Be careful what you say, what you write and consider your motivation.

Perhaps we should consider a Hippocratic Oath for all interpersonal relations including internet correspondence:  above all, do no harm.