I had been noticing some of the things streaming around twitter involving suing for tweeting something and such. In fact Chris Voss (on Twitter) has a video blog called Rude Tweets or Blogging Can Get You Sued – Video. The New York Times covered the fact that Courtney Love had been sued for saying defamatory things a designer in their article Short Outbursts on Twitter? #Big Problem.
I am not entirely into agreeance with Chris on those, but even the ‘golden rule’ is not used of day by day. Some instances are where the social network user or blogger may say something that is true. In the case that what is said is not libelous or defamatory toward a company, individual or brand, you are within your rights to say what you like.
Forgive me on this, but I will give an example. Calling someone a petty bitch is not libelous. It is a matter of opinion. However, if you say that someone is a liar, like the Courtney Love Twitter debacle, you could face serious backlash: being sued, fired, blacklisted from a career, and overall – damage your reputation.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a civil liberties group that covers the internet users rights. This includes bloggers. Their section on Bloggers Rights is indepth and insightful. In fact the EFF covers Bloggers Rights well in their article How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else) which talk about scenarios for certain bloggers whether they should or should not blog.
So, although you should really not say anything negative about anyone, you really should think about how it is said. If it is not true – do not write it or you could risk your credibility as a respected blogger.
Have you ever gotten in trouble for blogging?
Thanks for the great advice and resources. Sometimes we get so caught up in blogging and personal expression we can lose sight of the fact what we say is highly visible to a massive audience – due to the nature of the web. Freedom of expression and tact/foresight must always go hand in hand.
Yes, it should. I am not one to hinder people from speaking their mind, but there is obviously a fine line, especially when publishing it online. The record stays there for a long time, and since the search engines grabbed up the twitter streams, it would be increasingly difficult to ‘take back’ anything by deleting.