The Do’s and Don’ts of Twitter: Everyone is Watching

In light of the recent Library of Congress archive of  all of our “tweets”, Twitterers need to be more cautious and cognizant of what they discuss or tweet on Twitter.  Now most of us keep it simple and don’t engage in legal pitfalls such as defamation, terrorist threats, pornography, disclosure of private information, or intellectual property infringement. However there are others that treat Twitter like the wild wild west of social media networks.  Defamation, pornography, and threats of Presidential assassination are rampant.  There have been lawsuits filed and legal action taken against Twitters who engage in this type of behavior.

When using any social media network, anything you say or promote, good or bad is forever in cyberspace waiting to reward or punish you.  And now that the federal government via the Library of Congress has all of our tweets, we should be more cautious and strategic about what we say on Twitter.  Here is a list of Twitter dos and don’ts to assist Twitterers in avoiding legal liability or jail time.

1. Don’t threaten to kill the President or anyone else for that matter.  Terrorist threats are a felony crime and you will go to jail.

2. Don’t engage in conversations or make statements about a person’s character or reputation unless they are 100% true, already known to the public, and are made for news reporting purposes and not to maliciously ruin a person’s reputation.  Translation: Stop the Twitter fights!

3. Sending links to porn sites and posting porn is never a good idea.  Links could potentially link to child porn sites and child pornography is a federal crime.

4. Although Twitter does not claim in ownership in Twitter’s content which may include intellectual property, other Twitter users may infringe or use your content for their own purposes.  If you are tweeting copyright material, please do put a © sign behind the tweets to put others on notice of your ownership.  This includes original thoughts, quotes, phrases, ideas, pictures, etc.

5. Never discuss company trade secrets or reveal your own private identifying information on Twitter.  Although your Twitter feed may be locked or private, this information is still available in the public timeline and as we reported yesterday, the Library of Congress has archived private tweets also. (See comment below by Matt Raymond, Library of Congress.)

Remember when using Twitter or any other social network, use common sense.  Don’t engage in behavior that can cost you your freedom, job, or family.