Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Facebook/Social Media Law – Be Careful Who You Tag



Our current jurisprudence has not caught up with developments in social media yet. Thus, there is no specific law against tagging and posting pictures onto your facebook page. To this, pictures you post or tag on facebook might not be actionable. However, this should not be interpreted as a blanket permission to post and tag any pictures you want on facebook. In the proper context, some posts and tagging may be actionable.

First, the law guarantees people their right to privacy. Although one may argue that joining facebook is an implied consent that your pictures can be posted and tagged by others, the test will be one of reasonableness. The question for consideration will be, are the pictures such that it can be reasonable inferred that the person in the picture impliedly gave consent for it to be posted? There may also be relief where posts or tagging were done innocently.

In the right context, pictures and tagging on facebook may be actionable. For instances, in the proper context, it may constitute harassment, invasion of privacy or causing emotional harm. When used for commercial purposes, it can open the culprit up to the tort action of passing off. If the person in the picture owns the copyright to the pictures then there may also be issues of copyright infringements.

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