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Judge Rules That What You Post On Facebook Can Be Used As Evidence Against You
A U.S. District Court Judge in New York City has issued a ruling that, when you really think about it, should be rather blindingly obvious:
Did you know that what you say on Facebook can be used against you in a court of law? If you’re sharing something with your friends, you may as well be sharing directly with the judge and jury: A recent ruling in a U.S. federal court says that if you post something on Facebook, your friend can share that information with the police — it’s not a violation of your privacy.
Accused gang member Melvin Colon had argued in court that investigators violated his constitutional right to privacy when they viewed his Facebook profile via one of his friends’ accounts. But US District Judge William Pauley III ruled that Colon’s messaged threats and posts about violent acts he committed were not private, and indeed fair game for prosecutors. To some extent, the ruling makes logical sense: When you say something publicly on Facebook, you’re often sharing a thought with hundreds, maybe even thousands of people. There’s not much that’s private about that.
No, there’s not, what you post on Facebook, or Twitter, or any other social networking site is considered publicly disseminated for the purposes of the law even if you have restricted access to your account to only a select group of people. It’s the same situation, essentially, as if you were having a conversation with a group of your friends in your home and one of those friends went to the police and reported that you confessed to a crime. In this particular case, it appears that what happened is that the police had obtained the cooperation of one of Colon’s co-conspirators in the case at hand, who also happened to be on of his Facebook friends and, as part of convincing that person to become a cooperating witness (no doubt in exchange for lower charges or a lighter sentence as is common in these situations) they required him to let the police use his Facebook account to see what Colon was posting. When they saw that Colon was posting about the acts he’d committed in the case at issue, along with other violent acts, they applied for a Search Warrant to be served on Facebook, with the probable cause being what they had seen during the course of their investigation.
Bob M.
August 20th, 2012
FAZEbook?!?! Is that thing STILL around?!?!
Xavier
August 20th, 2012
Crimes committed by musloids are exempt.
Because religious freedom.
Because fuck you.
Team America
August 20th, 2012
Great example of why I don’t facebook or tweet. If I have something to say, I say it here or to your face.
bob
August 20th, 2012
Need to have your password be “password” or “12345″ because that way you can claim you got “hacked” and someone else was posting the vile deeds on your account.
Wasn’t me, man!
RANDO
August 20th, 2012
FB is for losers.
muddjuice
August 20th, 2012
I’ll never use facebook or twitter. I’m not that interesting….
LadyGun12
August 20th, 2012
Ah, that explains a lot, Cardigan.
donnie c
August 20th, 2012
arncha just dying to read jojo the dumbass vice-president’s wall???
wsorrian
August 20th, 2012
I disagree partially. If you mark your profile as private, then the police have no right to view the page. This is the same as if the served a search warrant to your neighbor and then he lets the cops into your house.
If his profile was tagged as public then he’s an idiot. But if it was marked private then there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. If the latter is true then this will likely be appealed and look for the punk to win.
Now there is still the question of whether the friend voluntarily shared the information with the police. If so then the police were in the right. But if they pressured him/her through warrants, subpoenas, threats of arrest, etc. then that would be coercion.
Xavier
August 20th, 2012
I do not agree with this Slate op-ed but it does bring some interesting facts about Facebook to light.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/08/facebook_should_be_nationalized_to_protect_user_rights_.html
Stranded in Sonoma
August 20th, 2012
So, in other words, the following should really be the disclaimer on Facebook.
Remember, the only type of person that can commit perjury is a sworn witness. When you sign a form with those words in the signature box* or swear that oath, you agree that you are giving up your 5th amendment right against compulsory self-witness, voluntarily. You are volunteering to be a sworn witness against yourself.
This is why the judge ruled it can be used against you. You volunteered all of the information on Facebook. No one forced you to join and partake in the discussions. Even if you mark your profile as private. Your friends may not do so and anything you say on their walls are not private. So, by logical extension, neither is your profile because you entered a discussion that you knew was public.
Now, I know that the vast majority of Facebook is innocuous stuff with families sharing pictures and stories, high school friends making contact after 20 years or so, etc. But if you’re the Unabomber II and stupid enough to post your manifesto on your wall (hint — just copy AGore’s Earth in the Balance), then you deserve what you get. The instant that you friend anyone with a public profile you’ve just given law enforcement the power to look at your profile.
Sorry, but there’s one born every minute.
* Check a 1040 form
Strike-Anywhere Ukulele
August 20th, 2012
Been trying to talk my kids and grandkids out of posting their lives on facebrick. It’s like talking to a brick wall.
xthred
August 20th, 2012
Every time I try to use Facebook I think just how awful was My Space that they lost to this?
reddecaesari
August 20th, 2012
got it.
what about rantings on iotw?
Stranded in Sonoma
August 20th, 2012
@reddecaesari — Yes. It’s a public forum, though you might argue that BFH has banned a few from the site. In BFH’s defense, he gives them plenty of rope to hang themselves so it’s still a public forum.
If you rant and rant about killing Obama and then Obama gets shot, you become a “person of interest.” If he was shot in Cleveland and you’ve never been there, you’re in the clear. If he was shot in the town where you live, the Secret Service is going to crawl up your ass with a microscope.
Dyrewulf
August 20th, 2012
I tell everybody, every chance I get “Don’t post it on FaceBook if you wouldn’t want it on a BILLBOARD.” Double that for Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. etc. Federal law requires those companies to keep the records for YEARS, including emails.