So as CNN is reporting today (yeah, a bit late), that evidently you CAN get sued for libel for a tweet. Sounds ridiculous? Yeah to me too. But really, it’s not so much ridiculous as it is yet another sad disjunction between the 1st Amendment, various traditional libel / slander laws, and all this new-fangled technolowhatsis that has been coming down the pike for the last few decade.

CNN Article: “Can the law keep up with technology?”

This is the same sort of thing that has been going on for ages; I’m sure that the first wheel maker was roundly condemned by the Porter’s Guild for stealing their livelihood.  But that’s really just something that happens whenever someone invents a better widget.

While this article basically re-hashes things that people have been talking about for many Internet Aeons, the whole “society playing catchup with tech” meme, and then tossing in Twitter / Facebook references since social media is the flavor of the month, it does serve to illustrate a point that i have tried to commnunicate many, many times.  Which is simply that social media, even if it feels like it, is not an innocent chat with your buddies at happy hour.  This is why my Twitter feed is NOT linked to my LinkedIn account — lots of content is not quite appropriate for a 100% business forum — snarky comments, retweets about obscure Drupal topics, and YouTube links don’t really feel right on LinkedIn.

So each and everytime that you see one of those “person X lost their job because they forgot who was on their Facebook friends list” articles, please remember.  You are broadcasting.