Just about everyone is on a social media networking site nowadays. Many of us are on multiple sites. Some of us use these social media sites for networking our businesses while others use it purely for social entertainment and interaction. It appears that Facebook and My Space are the most popular sites in terms of social entertainment and interaction. Facebook has over 250 million users and My Space has over 200 million users. Most people say whatever they want on these sites and do not give much though about the consequences. Its important to understand that there are laws in place to protect people against defamation. You should research the laws before you write what you think or better yet, contact your Pre-Paid Legal Provider Law Firm for advice.

So, what is defamation? According to Wikipedia, defamation is is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed. This sounds very serious, and is in fact serious! Below are a couple example of cases of defamation where the authors of this libel did not feel they were at risk. If you have any questions on the definition of defamation, you should contact your Pre-Paid Legal attorney for clarification.

An interesting case that I can across while searching on Google was a case involving a mother and her teenage son who are suing four minors. These four minors set up a fake Facebook page profile of the son with racist and sexual statements. They included the boy’s phone number and photos of him. This group of minors did updates that included statements such as, “Obama is cool, but he is black so….”. Other comments included information about sexual activities he had done with other males. There were also some vulgar and disturbing sexual comments about some girls. By the time the parents were able to get Facebook to remove the profile, it had about 580 “friends”. Many of the kids from school never even knew the profile was fake. The harm that came to this boy and his siblings as a direct result of this action has caused he and his siblings to have to change school and sports coaches.

Another interesting case I found was between a school superintendent in Oklahoma and a parent. This case is a little unclear as to what the Facebook comments were that spurred this lawsuit. However, it is the superintendent who is suing the parent. He alleges that comments the parent made about him on Facebook were, “to embarrass, harass and annoy [superintendent] for the purpose of causing [superintendent] to resign his position as Superintendent.” You can read the entire lawsuit here: Read the lawsuit.

As writers on our own blogs and social media sites, it is important that we uphold the letter of the law. Do not write anything that is questionable or could possibly harm an organization, group, business, or person. If you have questions on what is appropriate, you need to contact your Pre-Paid Legal attorney who can offer you free advice. If you find yourself on the other side of defamation and you come across information that is defaming to you, you need to contact your Pre-Paid Legal attorney for legal advice. Pre-Paid Legal is an important legal insurance that every citizen should have.

Learn more about Pre-Paid Legal Plans. Stop by Jennifer Provencio’s site where you can enroll in a Pre-Paid Legal Plan.

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