Social media

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the New York Times v. Sullivan ruling, which led to greater protections for the media from being sued for defamation by public officials and public figures like celebrities, the Associated Press says. The "case applies equally to new media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs," AP further reports. First Amendment lawyer Bruce W. Sanford told AP that there may be fewer libel cases because the Sullivan rule is widely accepted and because there's a greater opportunity to respond to untruths in the digital world.

The first "Twibel" verdict in the United States (or the first defamation verdict involving a tweet) resulted in a defense verdict for Courtney Love. An On the Media segment said the case "could become the social media equivalent of New York Times v. Sullivan," and Gigaom notes "the Love decision is significant because it comes in contrast to legal developments in the U.K., which threaten to chill the use of Twitter in that country. In October, for instance, a U.K. man agreed to pay $25,000 for retweeting a false statement, saying 'From my own experience, I am able to warn others of the dangers of retweeting.'" But Gigaom also noted that the decision leaves unsettled whether tweets should get more protection than other forms of online expression and if it should be accepted that tweets are inherently opinion.

Love tweeted: "@noozjunkie I was fucking devestated [sic] when Rhonda J. Holmes esq. of san diego was bought off @FairNewsSpears perhaps you can get a quote." The legal standards were high in the case because Rhonda Holmes was a limited-purpose public figure. Holmes had to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Love knew the message was false or doubted the truth of her tweet.

The Wall Street Journal reports on research that shows employers are using social media to look up job candidates and then discriminating against them. One lawyer advised that could be illegal. The WSJ reports: '"I advise employers that it's not a good idea to use social media as a screening tool," said James McDonald, a partner at Fisher & Phillips LLP who specializes in employment law. "You need to control the information you receive so you're only getting information that is legal for you to take into account."'

California has passed a law to criminalize, as a misdemeanor, posting "identifiable nude pictures of someone else online without permission with the intent to cause emotional distress or humiliation," The Guardian reports. The ACLU opposed the legislation on free-speech grounds.

The Wall Street Journal Digits Blog reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the level of trust that users of the social media network have in Facebook has diminished because of the NSA's surveillance. Zuckerberg was speaking at an event held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., and sponsored by The Atlantic.

Zuckerberg also said that he has no plans to get into the news business as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is doing by acquiring The Washington Post, USA Today reported: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/18/mark-zuckerberg-...

One of the most notorious incidents of lawlessness the wake of Hurricane Katrina was the alleged murder of two men on a New Orleans bridge by police officers who arrived with guns blazing and who then allegedly covered up the killings. Now the convictions have been thrown out, in part, because of online comments federal prosecutors made on news articles on the New Orleans Times-Picayune web site, that paper reported. The judge in the case said in a 129-page order, according to the paper, "The government's actions, and initial lack of candor and credibility thereafter, is like scar tissue that will long evidence infidelity to the principles of ethics, professionalism, and basic fairness and common sense necessary to every criminal prosecution, wherever it should occur in this country."

The city of Philadelphia is close to changing its model of providing lawyers to criminal defendants and family-court litigants too poor to afford their own lawyers and for whom the Defender Association of Philadelphia is conflicted out of representing. Currently, individual attorneys take those appointments, but the city is contemplating having one for-profit law firm do the bulk of the work. But The Legal Intelligencer reports one of the main attorneys behind the leading bid to get the work not only has a disciplinary record but made questionable postings on social media, including sharing a posting by another page titled "American White History Month 2," whose avatar reads, "Never Apologize for Being White." The attorney told The Legal that the posting was sent to him by someone else and that he shared it from his iPhone without realizing that it originated on the "American White History Month 2" page or that it was directed at Muslims.