Michigan Study Links Social Media & Narcissism

The University of Michigan just completed a study that links social media and narcissism.  In You're so vain: U-M study links social media and narcissism, the study found that college students who posted more on Twitter also scored higher in certain types of narcissism.  Among middle-aged adults, narcissists posted more frequent status updates on Facebook. The study did not clarify whether narcissism leads to increased use of social media or whether social media use promotes narcissism.

A Good Lesson for Lawyers Engaging in Social Media

From Professional Liability Matters comes a story about an attorney who narrowly escaped court-imposed sanctions after posting a picture on Facebook of the attorney smiling with his client with the following caption:  "Pic After Making a $43 Million Dollar Demand at Mediation."  When opposing counsel learned of the Facebook post, he filed a motion for sanctions against the attorney claiming that the photograph was a knowing and willful violation of state confidentiality provisions that prohibit the disclosure of mediation communications. The Judge dismissed the motion for sanctions, but nevertheless the attorney did subsequently remove the Facebook post according to an interview with Law360.com.   

Even though the attorney escaped sanctions, this is a good reminder for attorneys of their ethical obligations when using social media.  There are a number of ethical rules that come into play, including rules to protect attorney-client communications, prohibit the misrepresentation of material facts, and limitations on advertisement and solicitation, among many others. 

For more information about attorney ethics and social media, you can check out the following materials I prepared for an upcoming seminar for local government attorneys on the legal and ethical issues relating to social media.  We also devoted an entire chapter to attorney ethics in the book published by the ABA earlier this year, Social Media & Local Governments - Navigating the New Public Square. 

New Article on Cyberbullying

Social media has not only changed the way we communicate, but it has spawned an entire new vocabulary.  For example, "tweeting" is not just the sound birds make and "friends" don't always mean people you have personally met.   Cyberbullying is another example of a term that probably was not used just a short decade ago, but has been receiving a lot of media attention recently.

 

In a new article, Bullying on Facebook: How It Affects Secondary School and College Students, students at Tarleton State University investigate how cyberbullying via Facebook affects students transitioning from high school to college by looking at how bullying emerges from interpersonal communication on social networking websites.  The authors concluded that most students had either experienced or witnessed cyberbullying, and that cyberbullying does affect academic performance in some shape or form.

Retaining Government Records in the Era of Social Media

Governments (cities, counties, states) are increasingly using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others, to disseminate information and engage their constituents. Unlike private individuals and groups, however, governments have to comply with all sorts of regulations and policies that are intended to promote government transparency.

 

For example, every state has enacted laws that require government bodies to retain public records and release them upon request, subject to a variety of exemptions.  The Florida Attorney General’s Office considers information on government social networking sites as subject to record retention laws because they are created for “a public purpose and connection with the transaction of the official business of the city.”  Public bodies should be aware that their own state laws may require these records to be retained indefinitely or that permission must be sought prior to destroying the records. 

In addition to the legal issues, the preservation of online government records also presents practical challenges for which there are few standards. Governments have little or no control over the third party hosts of these sites.  Government officials are also understandably concerned about the time, staffing, and money required to retain past social networking interactions. 

 

Governments might consider following one of the following approaches (or a combination thereof) in complying with open record laws.

At minimum, government officials should retain periodic screenshots of their Facebook or Twitter pages, especially if they posted the comments.  The benefit of this option is that it is a cost-effective way to retain these records.  The drawbacks are that it places a considerable demand on staff time and physical resources, requiring government officials and their support staff to adhere to a regular schedule of printing out screen shots.  Also, at a time when most municipalities are trying to reduce their consumption and storage of paper, local governments are forced to once again create physical filing space for screen captures.

Another option is for governments to rely on social networking companies (i.e. Facebook) to archive the online communications.  This perhaps is the most cost-effective and efficient means of preserving a government’s social media interactions with the least amount of demand on staff time.  Unfortunately, a private company’s record retention policy may not comply with open record laws leaving governments open for potential violations.  Moreover, the government has little or no control over the third-party "host" as to what is being retained and for how long. 

A third alternative is for governments to use archival subscription services, such as Archive-It, which was launched in 2006 by the Internet Archives, a non-profit organization.  According to Archive-It, governments collect, catalog, and manage their collection of social networking sites with “content stored and hosted through the Internet Archives data centers.”  Four cities (San Francisco, Seattle, Raleigh, and Cary, North Carolina) digitally archive their Facebook or multiple Twitter feeds at least once a month.  By default, all Archive-It collections are publicly available and accessible, but subscribers have the option of making their entire collection or parts of their collection private within a specific IP address.  Archived pages display a highlighted bar at the top of the screen with a date and timestamp of when the page was archived, a warning to users that the information on screen may be out of date, and a link to all versions of the archived page.

If a government ends its Archive-It subscription, the collection remains as is, but local officials always have the option of adding or removing content from the public site.  Moreover, public bodies can request that copies of data be sent to them for an additional fee.  Through Archive-It, and other similar programs, governments can create and customize a record retention system that is in compliance with its state’s open record laws.  The drawback is that this service may be out of reach for rural or smaller communities where cost, training, and possibly updating the city’s technological infrastructure present potential roadblocks to implementation.

Employees Behaving Badly on Social Media

ABC News and other news media are reporting on a Taco Bell employee who posted a picture of himself, in uniform and at work, licking a stack of tacos.  Taco Bell Conducts Investigation After Licked Taco Shell Photo Posted to Facebook - ABC News. 

I am filing this post under "What's New" but it really should be labeled "What Not to Do." More reason why (1) employers need to adopt and enforce a social media policy and (2) employees need to think before they overshare. 

I hate to even repost the picture - tacos for lunch anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do LinkedIn Endorsements Violate Attorney Ethics Rules?

I have written about this subject before on my other blog, Municipal Minute, and it is addressed in the Social Media & Local Governments book, but I was glad to see that the American Bar Association is finally weighing in on the issue of whether an attorney may be inadvertently violating local ethics rules on LinkedIn.

 

For those of you who are on LinkedIn, you know that your connections can "endorse" you in certain skills and expertise areas.  For example, if you are a real estate attorney, you might focus your practice in acquisitions, finance, or leasing.  You may have added those three areas of practice to your "skills & expertise" profile.  Your connections can then endorse you in your "skills & expertise" areas. 

 

So, what's the problem?  Under ABA Model Rule 7.1, an attorney is prohibited from making any false or misleading claims about his or her services.  In certain states that have adopted modified ethics rules for attorneys, attorneys are prohibited from claiming any specialization or certification in a particular area of law except under very limited circumstances.  An attorney must be careful in using the skills & expertise function on LinkedIn, and in allowing endorsements, so as not to violate any applicable ethics rules that could be seen as misleading. 

 

You can read an article in the ABA Journal here. 

Copyright Myths Debunked by...Costco?

I love Costco - who doesn't, right?  Not only can I pick up 25 rolls of paper towels and all the blueberries I cannot possibly finish in a week while they are still fresh, but I can also learn about copyright law.  What, you say?  At Costco?  Yep.  Keep reading.

 

The April 2013 edition of The Costco Connection had a great article called "The Copyright Quandry - What are the Rules When Posting to Social Media?"  Even more interesting is the sidebar article by Lloyd J. Jassin (a copyright lawyer in New York), called "Copyright Myths."  You can read the article here. 

 

So, what can we learn from Costco about copyrights and social media?   

1. Myth - If I give credit I don't need permission.  Fact - Giving credit is not a substitute for getting permission to use someone's copyright material. 
2. Myth - The work I want to use does not include a copyright notice, so I don't need permission. Fact - Just because a work contains no copyright notice, that does not mean it isn't copyrighted.
3. Myth - I'm using the work for nonprofit purposes, so I'm exempt from copyright laws.  Fact - Non-profit users are not immune from copyright infringement lawsuits.
4. Myth - I don't need permission because I'm going to adapt the work.  Fact - Adapting the work for your own use without permission may still violate the owner's copyright.
5. Myth - The material I want to use was posted anonymously so it's in the public domain.  Fact - The Copyright Act protects anonymous and pseudonymous work. 
6. Myth - The work is in the public domain so I don't have to clear permissions.  Fact - Even if it is not copyright protected, it could still be protected by other legal theories including trade secret, contract law, or other legal protections.

Thanks, Costco.