across the bar

don't lose face on facebook

by Steve - Posted 10 February 2010

Word from the social media experts is that you need to be open and honest on sites like Facebook and MySpace to win friends and influence people. Personally I think its like being in a big room with loads of people standing on their own individual soapboxes seeing who can be the wittiest, most interesting or the loudest. But in striving for social media stardom, remember that while all these sites laud their privacy policies, they are still public websites where what you say can come back to haunt you.

Tokyo Sekwale's niece recently landed in hot water over comments she made about our good president's extra-curricular activites on her Facebook page.

Thinking that her comments were private, they were leaked by someone on her friend list to the media causing huge embarrassment for Uncle Tokyo who is a member of the president's cabinet.

If you are not yet a member of a social media site, you are probably reading this in Kleindorpfontein (picture tumble weed, skew teeth and banjo's)  If you do hail from one of these places, just be very careful what you say about your beloved town or its good people.

Take the case of Cynthia Moreno, a small town girl turned university student. Not being content with simply moving away from the metropolis of Coalinga, California, Ms Moreno proceeded to dis her hometown on her MySpace page, saying how much she despised it and listing a number of reasons why it was a dump.

Her rant, which only stayed on her page for 6 days, was read by the headmaster of her old school.

Mr Grumpy, obviously not taking kindly to the criticism, decided to make an example of Morena by alerting the local newspaper to her comments. The editor of the newspaper published the rant verbatim in the next edition.

Unfortunately, Moreno's family, who still lived in the town, started receiving death threats and were eventually forced to close down their business and leave town.

Moreno sued the principal who leaked the rant to the paper for infringement of privacy. However, because she had posted the rant on a public website, she had no legitimate right to privacy and her claim failed.

This serves as a warning about being too honest on social media sites.

It may not lead to you or your family being railroaded out of town. But you could lose your job or even some friends.

For more information on the legal risks of social media, give us a call on (021) 465 9175.