Twitter thou doeth?

Abstract

Twitter, which started as a micro-blogging website, is the third most popular social network next to Facebook and My Space. Twitter is increasingly becoming primary means of communication among individuals and businesses. It is now being used in courts for issuing injunctions. However, Twitter “tweets” are also potential litigation minefield for lawyers, businesses and employers. As a social-networking tool, the use of Twitter can raise a variety of legal issues such as the right of publicity, breach of confidentiality, privacy infringement, fraud trademark infringement, copyright infringement, reverse username hijacking, among others.

Introduction

Social media has exploded in recent years. It has transformed how people live and do business. The enabling technologies have shaped cooperative structures wherein human interactions are encouraged proactively. Many organisations are utilising the power of the social media to provide an outlet for news, share ideas, and communicate services and products. The potential market that can be reached has encouraged many organisations to flock to social-media platforms to get clients, connect with customers, allow users to socialize around purchases and drive sales. In a recent study conducted by the University of Maryland, the Centre for Excellence found that social-media adoption by small businesses have doubled from 12% to 24% in 2009. Small businesses are using blogs, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. The survey of 500 small business owners found that social media now is used more than tele-sales, direct mail and broadcast TV (Kim, 2010).¹

Social media is gaining momentum as one of the most important tools for people to lift their voices. Citizens are using them to overcome the power of politicians by having the ability to express their opinion and engage in a direct conversation with an unlimited audience including people and institutions once comfortably on a pedestal. Social media is levelling the field by allowing every person to engage in a discussion. It has broken some of the traditional barriers and dispelled misinformation on the Web.

Facebook, blogs and twitters have become the most popular online category. According to the Nielsen company, global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year when users were spending just over 3 h on social-networking sites.² The survey also revealed that among the top five US social-networking sites, Twitter.com continued its reign as the fastest-growing in December 2009 in terms of unique visitors, increasing 579% year-over-year, from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008 to 18.1 million in December 2009. This shows that social media is bigger than what we think.

Twitter, which started as a micro-blogging website, is the third most popular social network next to Facebook and My Space. What started as a platform for friends to stay connected in real time has become an important marketing tool for celebrities, politicians and an important component of brand marketing. It provides an outlet for news, trends, buzz and chat. President Barack Obama and actresses Britney Spears and Demi Moore are some of the most active tweeters. The actor Ashton Kutcher is considered the world’s number one tweeter. Even the actor Kelsey Grammer, who played TV’s Frasier Crane, used Twitter to confirm rumours of his divorce from wife Camille via Twitter. More recently, Angelina Jolie has reportedly signed up for the account @angelinajolie so that she could own the username and tweet for charity-related items.³ In the European Union, members of the European Parliament on Twitter are gathered at europatweets, where citizens are updated about current affairs. The UK courts are already using Twitter to send injunctions.⁴

Tweeting can also be an effective tool in asserting consumer rights. Pressure from Twitter users has made Air Canada fix a terminally ill boy’s wheelchair after it was damaged during a flight.⁵

Tweeting has also become a new potent force in diplomacy among many other uses. Twitter emerged into the spotlight during the political unrest in Iran following its national election. In a notable moment during the Iranian protests, State Department official e-mailed Twitter to request a delay in scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran.⁶ Twitter immediately delayed its upgrade. The episode demonstrates the recognition that social media has become an important tool in sustaining protests, promoting freedom of expression and e-diplomacy. The events also established the credibility of Twitter as an important tool in reporting and sharing breaking news.

During Barack Obama’s speech before the joint session of Congress, members of the Congress were tweeting and sending updates from the floor of the Congress.

While Twitter does offer value in sharing news, most of the Twitter tweets are still babbles. US market research firm Pear Analytics conducted a short term study aimed at determining what people do with the service. The study found that only 8.7% of messages could be said to have “value” as they passed along news of interest. It found that 40.5% could be classified as pointless babble, 37.5% as conversational and 8.7% as having pass-along value. Self promotion and spam stood at 5.85% and 3.75% respectively.⁷

These pointless babbles must still be tweeted with care. Twitter “tweets” are a potential litigation minefield for lawyers, businesses and employers. As a social-networking tool, the use of Twitter can raise a variety of legal issues such as the right of publicity, breach of confidentiality, privacy, infringements, jury duty, among others.