http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2014/04/14/us-airways-apologizes-for-lewd-photo-sent-via-twitter/7710713/

If you have not heard already, a tweet sent from the official US Airways page sent twitter and other social media sites into a frenzy today. Apparently a lewd photo was sent in response to a customer mentioning US Airways in a tweet after an unpleasant experience. It has been speculated that the company's page was not hacked and that it was an inside job. This is not the first time a major company has had to deal with a mishap involving an inappropriate tweet from the official page. With social media having such a huge impact on today's world, are tweets and other social media posts any longer an intern's duty? Should companies actually have a team consisting of PR, Legal, and Marketing that has a checks and balances or chain of command before pressing the "send" button??

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maseenaziegler/2014/04/08/mark-cuban-wants-to-take-over-texting/

Most know Mark Cuban as the very animated owner of the Dallas Mavericks, some know him as the risk taking entrepreneur, but now we will get to know him as messaging app creator. Cuban will introduce the messaging app, Cyber Dust. It is described as "WhatsApp meets Snapchat" in that in text message sent will disappear after 24 seconds of being viewed. Cuban says that there will not even be messages stored on Cyber Dust's servers. It will be interesting to see the how this will play out in the future. I think it will give users a false sense of security and less accountability.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/04/broker-scores-13-million-deal-on-social-media.html

A real estate broker from the Bravo reality television show Million Dollar Listing NYC was contacted via one of the largest social media platforms in China (WeChat) by an investor looking to purchase property in the city. The broker closed a 13 million dollar for a complete stranger on the other side of the world simply from a social media message. It would be interesting to see if there are legal services that can be completely done with information sent solely from social media solicitation. It doesn't hurt that the broker is already known in the circle of top dollar investors and regularly seen on a television series. However, it shows that in any profession in the age of social media it it possible to sell yourself and services to consumers around the world without really even proactively doing any solicitation. 

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140214/fort-greene/fort-greene-park-muggers-caught-after-taking-selfie-with-stolen-phone-nypd

In class Friday, we were just discussing whether or not social media makes the jobs of law enforcement harder or easier. There were some good arguments for each side but in all honesty I think there cannot be a blanket answer that applies across all situations. I think in some instances social media allows law enforcement to do their jobs with ease, on the other hand, social media is the very thing the complicates the entire situation. 

In the article above, two muggers robbed a man in NY, taking cash and his iPhone. Later, the two suspects decided to take a "selfie" on the stolen phone and the victim noticed that the pictures were uploaded to his iCloud storage. In the picture, the suspects were posing with a handful of cash. NYPD used the selfie to identify both suspects who were found and later arrested on five counts of robbery including a string of other robberies they were connected to in the area. 

I think here is a situation where the robbers eliminated the leg work for the NYPD. Taking the picture with likely intentions of uploading to social media allowed them to be located, identified, and arrested.

http://www.govtech.com/internet/Wisconsin-to-Adopt-Social-Media-Privacy-Law.html

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is expected to sign a bill into law that prohibits employers for requesting the passwords and usernames from prospective employees' social media accounts. Should there be more laws in place by states to protect the First Amendment rights of its residents? It seems that employers already have background checks, references, and other assessments that aid in determining if an individual is fit to be hired by their company. There might be very little indication from a person's social media presence that depicts them as not eligible for a position, but I do believe that assessing one's free speech about things that they may say or do on their own time is invasive. Once an individual becomes an agent of a certain company, however, they should expect to be seen as a representative and be aware of certain ideas or expressions one might convey.

http://www.voanews.com/content/white-house-to-address-petition-to-deport-justin-bieber/1842542.html

As you know, Canadian pop star, Justin Bieber has been making headlines recently with his run ins with the law. Last week, he was pulled over after drag racing in Miami and admitted to consuming alcohol and being on prescription drugs while driving. Bieber was arrested and taken to Miami Dade County Prison where he was processed and eventually released on bail. This comes after not too long ago of Bieber vandalizing the houses in his Los Angeles neighborhood.

Last week, a "We the People" petition was started in attempts to have Justin Bieber deported back to his home country, Canada. The petition cites Bieber as "reckless, dangerous, and destructive." The petition gained attention by world of social media and reached over 200,000 signatures within just a week. A petition needs 100,000 signatures before the White House has to look into it. The Obama administration announced that it will respond.

http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/top-news/pair-sentenced-for-twitter-abuse-of-feminist/ncz7c/

In London, a couple was arrested for making vulgar and threatening statements to a feminist via Twitter. The woman that was being e-attacked managed to have the magistrate emphasize with her discomfort and horror and sentenced the pair to up to 12 weeks in prison. Although this happened across the pond, should there be a new precedent when it comes to making threats online? Should there be a higher standard of the "clear and present danger" test that one's action must pass in order to be considered an offender? It seems like a  ruling such as this raises many questions and it will be interesting to see where the law goes with implementing sanctions for using social media as a vehicle for threats and bullying.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/pr-executive-justine-sacco-apologises-after-losing-job-over-racist-aids-joke-provoked-hasjustinelandedyet-twitter-storm-9020809.html

http://abcnews.go.com/International/woman-fired-tweet-aids-africa-sparks-internet-outrage/story?id=21298519

Keep Your Tweets, Lose Your Job.

Annnnd, we're back! So, what did we learn from last week? 

We learned that in the fight  for the ultimate protection between your First Amendment freedom of speech and the safety of The President of the United States of America: POTUS wins, flawless victory.

There's a possibility we can face actual legal repercussions for a tweet?! Yes, we can.

So, it seems that as long as an individual isn't using Twitter to mastermind tweet-plots (I avoided mashing the two words together to keep it PG-13) to take out leaders of the world then they should be in the clear, right?

Wrong.

Justine Sacco was a Public Relations Director of InterActive Corp, who owns companies such as Match.com and Dictionary. com. On December, 20, 2013, Sacco prepared to board a flight to the Motherland, but not before tweeting some words of wisdom, "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding, I'm white!" Sacco only had about 200 hundred Twitter followers but per usual, the Private Investigators of the Twitterverse managed to spread the tweet around so rapidly that #HasJustineLandedYet became an international trending topic. Sacco gained twinfamy in the time it took from the London to South Africa flight. The Tweeps joined forces and made sure to let everyone know what kind of person Sacco truly was, everyone, including her bosses.

If you are willing to be brave enough to tweet such a statement it would make sense to purchase in-flight wireless to check out the responses, because no good tweet goes unpunished. Sacco's nonsense spread like wildfire across the globe to the point where there was actually a Twitter user (@Zac_R) in the airport in South Africa awaiting Sacco's arrival to see if it was really her that made the tweet and catch her reaction once she caught wind of her twitter explosion. 

Turns out, Sacco had not been hacked and she in fact made the tweet. Sacco immediately deleted the tweet, along with her Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram account. Sacco soon issued an apology, stating the tweet was a joke. Well, Sacco's employer, InterActive Corp, must have thought the tweet was so funny that they had to give her the boot because they obviously did not want to hold her back from a prosperous career as a comedian; yea, that's exactly what it was. 

It did not take too long for InterActive Corp to release this statement, "There is no excuse for the hateful comments that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally" and that they "parted ways with the employee in question." People love to throw out there, "It's my account, I can tweet, post, and say what I want!" But people should also realize that yes, as an individual, you do have the freedom of speech. But, once you associate yourself with a company, organization, or corporation, you no longer speak for yourself, but you speak for them as well. If the thoughts and beliefs of one single person managed to become reflective of an entire corporation or if it seemed the corporation condoned such words or acts, the liability and backlash could be endless.

So, what have we learned today? Yes, your speech is free. But when it comes to your employer and livelihood, be mindful that a simple tweet could mean you writing a check that ya a$$ can't cash, because, unemployment.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/272378/36/Secret-Service-investigates-16-year-old-Alyssa-Douglas-tweet-about-assassinating-President-Obama

Do you believe in this day and age that the people in the world are more entitled and do/say more foolish things than those of past generations?

I believe absolutely not. What I have ascertained, however, is that social media has provided an outlet for individuals to express their First Amendment rights now more than ever. I am pretty sure that when the Framers drafted the Constitution and added the right to free speech that they never intended such encounters as tweets and facebook statuses.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has ruled that people can essentially say whatever they want, no matter how ignorant and offensive (here's to you, Westboro Baptist Church) so long as it passes the muster of the clear and present danger and a few other tests. 

But, at what point should you pay the price for your free speech when it comes to social media? In case you are unsure of where to start, I can point you in a direction: The President of the United States of America.

Elected officials choose to put certain aspects of their lives on a stage to the masses, so criticism is to be expected. Not every person in this world is going to like you, and that's okay, but in the case of the POTUS, choose your words wisely. 

Americans have expressed their displeasure or non-approval of a President or Presidential hopeful since the beginning of time, whether there were picket signs, protests on Capitol Hill, or even heckling an event where the POTUS will be (sometimes, shoes just gotta fly). But there have been very few instances where one's displeasure with the POTUS and the expression of such displeasure has actually landed them in trouble with law, that is, until social media came around.

Social media has allowed billions on individuals to come together and use a common outlet of communication between other people. Social media has even starting to take a deviation from actually connecting people to just a platform where one can express how the truly feel about a certain topic and have the opportunity to heard by the masses. Social media is your First Amendment rights...on crack. You can post a tweet, status, or picture and gain attention immediately. If someone thinks your post is funny, enlightening, inspirational, or informative, it only takes a matter of time and retweets before millions of people now know who you are and how you view the world. 

But what about when that attention comes back and bites you? Case and point: 16 year old Alyssa Douglas from the Clarksville area of Ohio. During the Democratic National Convention that took place in 2012, Douglas tweeted, "Someone needs to assassinate Obama...like ASAP #DieYouPieceofS--t" It didn't take long for Douglas' tweet to circulate around the twitterverse and into the hands of the local Secret Service office U.S. Attorney's Office for the South District of Ohio. In addition to Douglas, a man from North Carolina was charged after tweeting, "Ima assassinate president Obama this evening!" two days before Obama was to arrive in Charlotte for the Democratic Convention. It seems that making comments in regards to the POTUS' well being are taken as seriously as the era of Communist Party mailings and pamphlets. There are some things that should be understood as a no-no, threatening the Commander-In-Chief is one them. Don't be stupid and end up paying a price for that free speech.