Law

If you’re active on social media, you should really consider what will happen to your social media accounts when you kick the bucket.

Twitter does have a policy for deactivating deceased users’ accounts, but what if you don’t want it deactivated? Ethics and creepiness factor aside, you may want it to stay put for whatever reason – at least for a period of time. As we spoke to before, for example, what’s the proper etiquette for informing followers of your passing?

Though you may view this as burdening your loved ones with one more ‘to do,’ you may actually be saving them from the huge hassle of dealing with collection calls and such after your unthinking booty’s identity is stolen.

Not to mention the perpetual embarrassment of seeing your name come up in certain search results. Ahem.

Point is, there’s a lot more to consider.
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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

It’s a bizarre punishment, but two French politicians want their defamer to tweet “sorry” 466 times to atone for his rude words.
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It’s an unconventional move, maybe even the first of its kind: George Zimmerman’s defense lawyer has set up a Twitter account, Facebook account and blog in his client’s name.
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It’s not all fun and games when it comes to tweeting and pinning. Using social media has legal implications – especially if you’re going through a messy divorce.

Family law attorneys have found social media to offer a wealth of information on adulterous spouses and lying exes. Here’s how social media evidence can make or break a divorce case.
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Ahh, the tweet seat. Those block of seats reserved for smartphone-addicted patrons of movies, the theater and sporting events. While they’re not everywhere yet, more and more venues are encouraging patrons to bring their phones and tweet during events – but only in specific seating, so as not to bother the other guests.

Sounds like a neat idea (although it definitely has its detractors), but should it be patentable? One company seems to think so, and they’re gunning for at least one event venue with their “ownership” of tweet seats.
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Twitter has filed a patent application to own the “pull to refresh” functionality, which is increasingly popular on a whole slew of mobile apps, including Facebook and Google+. But should Twitter really be able to own something as basic as pulling the screen down to refresh it?
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A 131-character tweet just cost Lalit Modi £1.5 million in court costs – and damages to boot. What happened? Another case of not thinking things through before you tweet, it seems.
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Some would argue that @MayorofLondon seems to pretty clearly represent the Twitter stream of the Mayor of London, regardless of who that person is. Others may disagree with this statement – like Boris Johnson, the current Mayor of London, who changed the name of the account to @BorisJohnson on day one of the mayoral election campaign, taking 200k+ Twitter followers with him. He has since changed it back, but it raises an interesting question and one we’ll see more often: who owns your Twitter account?
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No one can say the Estonian courts are technologically backwards: they’re blazing a new social media trail as they attempt to outline the ways in which they can contact criminals and suspects via Facebook and Twitter, serving subpoenas in 140-characters or less.
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Twitter is one defendant among 17 being named in a privacy lawsuit. The company and its co-defendants are being accused by 13 individuals of uploading user address books on smartphones without permission or notification.
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