NEWS
and which will potentially have global implications is not the issue of whether or not wealthy celebs and politicians should be able to gag the media with superinjunctions- it has become a debate (and clarification of the law) as to whether social networking are simply content platforms or publishers. The question then arises should such sites regulate what their contributors publish and how those individuals breaking the law should be monitored.
Should sites like Facebook with massive financial resources be allowed to operate outside the law that regulates traditional media?
Evidence from the courts
suggests that whilst many Twitter users may view their comments as John Hemming described it as “gossip” or private conversations the courts view such mediums as publishing. The case in point is that of Paul Chambers who was prosecuted following a tweet about blowing up an airport and found guilty of “sending a menacing electronic communication”.
The most vocal supporters of placing restrictions on social media are surprisingly not so likely to be from wayward celebrities as from the mainstream media itself. Traditional media stand the most to gain from a level playing field of secrecy- open the floodgates and paid content provides face a battle with free social media streams who are continually redefining how the public receives content.
Policing Twitter?
How then can you police the likes of Twitter and Facebook or take criminal action against those hiding behind anonymity? How does the judiciary regain control, if at all? And where next for foolish footballers?
Football, ironically has already tried to police
With Twitter seemingly unwilling to protect users who break national laws, freedom of expression via the anonymity of the web may be coming to an end. The question of how it will ever be realistically policed and whether safety in numbers will provide the undoing of any attempts at regulation are likely to be further tested in the weeks and months ahead.
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professional footballers, regularly taking action against errant pro’s who breach their contracts by bringing the game into disrepute. During England’s friendly versus Ghana, West Ham’s Carlton Cole tweeted ‘Immigration has surrounded the Wembley premises! I knew it was a trap! Hahahaha. The only way to get out safely is to wear an England jersey and paint your face w/ the St. George’s flag!’ He was fined £20,000.
The FA after handing out the fine stated ‘We would advise players not to stop tweeting but to bear in mind that this is not an intimate private conversation.” Surely fines like these mean that the FA wants to stop footballers tweeting?… No, to date the FA have raised over £36,000 through fines alone.
The problem with globally policing all 50 million Twitter tweets per day is one of scale. Traditional media controls its content by strict editorial guidelines, employing staff and agencies when publishing articles online or through print. Public interaction with traditional media is largely limited to individual publishers discussion and comment boards which are ironically often unregulated or where they are regulated do so through a time lapse.
A quick glance at CNN’s comment sections shows a raft of unsavoury public comments, unregulated due to sheer resource demands. Yet traditional media are likely to lead the calls for the ‘citizen journalists’ numbering in the hundreds of millions on Facebook and Twitter to be regulated.
Will Facebook and Twitter be expected to police every racially provocative or homophobic comment? With UK courts seemingly viewing such comments as publications, not as private conversations it is likely that ‘citizen journalists’ will become liable for their comments and actions and that Twitter and Facebook are to be regarded as media publishers, just like any other.
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