{"id":462854,"date":"2010-03-23T11:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techdirt.com\/articles\/20100312\/1822218545.shtml"},"modified":"2010-03-23T11:44:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T15:44:00","slug":"social-networking-rants-against-exes-turning-up-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/462854","title":{"rendered":"Social Networking Rants Against Exes Turning Up In Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many people, it’s natural to treat social networking platforms as being the equivalent of just talking — rather than being any sort of formal written communication. Of course, the big difference is that everything you type can be accurately saved forever — and, potentially, used against you in court. Obviously what people say out loud can also be used in court, but in an argument between, say, a broken up couple, a yelling fight just becomes a screaming match. In the social networking world, it can become evidence. Two recent stories highlight this. The first, from Eric Goldman, is the “disturbingly humorous” transcript<\/a> from the court concerning a blog post about a woman’s ex-husband:<\/p>\n

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BY [DEFENSE]: … Prior to Au-April 22nd, 2008 had you ever expressed or communicated in any way that you wanted your ex to die a slow painful death?<\/p>\n

A I believe you’re referring to my “My Space” …<\/p>\n

Q I’m not-I-no, I’m not referring to anything. I’m just asking you a simple question: if you’d ever expressed or communicated in any way that you wanted your ex-husband, Mr. Embry, to die a slow painful death?<\/p>\n

A I see it right there on your desk.<\/p>\n

Q Okay.<\/p>\n

A It’s my “My Space” blog.<\/p>\n

Q Okay, did you say it?<\/p>\n

A I typed it.<\/p>\n

Q Okay. But the answer is, did you say it? I mean is that your communication.<\/p>\n

A I typed it.<\/p>\n

Q Okay. And did you ever express um, or communicate in any way that you wanted to be present and dance the cha-cha around his slow painful death?<\/p>\n

A It’s all there in the blog.<\/p>\n

Q Okay. The answer’s a simple yes or no. You said it; you’ve communicated it some way, did you?<\/p>\n

A If you want to put that blog there, I …<\/p>\n

Q I’m just asking you a simple question.<\/p>\n

BY COURT: Ma’am, will ya just answer the question yes or no?<\/p>\n

A Yes, I did.<\/p>\n

Q Did you ever refer to Mr. Embry or communicate in any way that he was a worthless bag of monkey shit?<\/p>\n

A Yes.<\/p>\n

Q Did you ever refer to him as dog piss?<\/p>\n

A Yes.<\/p>\n

Q Did you ever refer to him as a worm puke stale crusty moldy inhuman horrible human oxygen sucking moron?<\/p>\n

A Yes.<\/p>\n

Q Did you ever communicate the desire, that because he’s older and more stupid than you, he will die way before you do?<\/p>\n

A I believe I said please assure me that it was possible that he would pass before me.”<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The state’s attorney redirects with this understated summary:<\/p>\n

“BY [STATE]: Ms. Embry, is it fair-fair to say that you’re not very fond of your former husband?<\/p>\n

A No, I am not fond of him at all.”<\/p>\n

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The second such story takes place in the UK, where a 29-year-old man has been fined for the message he sent his ex-girlfriend on Facebook<\/a>. The court won’t reveal what was in the note, but apparently it was judged to be “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene, or menacing character.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is just a sign of our litigious times, but it does seem like there’s a bit of a clash going on between how people view social networking (as a communication system, like talking, where you can make extreme statements in the heat of the moment) when they communicate, and how it’s then used in courts — as more of an “official statement of record.”<\/p>\n

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For many people, it’s natural to treat social networking platforms as being the equivalent of just talking — rather than being any sort of formal written communication. Of course, the big difference is that everything you type can be accurately saved forever — and, potentially, used against you in court. Obviously what people say out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}