Facebook "Threats" Could Land Man Conviction
The advent and popularization of new technology can mean greater efficiency, better entertainment and easier living. But it can also mean headaches for the legal world. With so many new technological frontiers, court cases involving the use - and misuse- of these frontiers abound.
In the past, Total Lawyers has reported on similar legal issues: check out articles on Facebook profiles, Facebook applications, constitutional rights in blogs and blogs and the legal world. And here's a new one for you.
According to reports from nationalpost.com, a Canadian Facebook user (whose name cannot be revealed because of Canadian family-protection laws) is facing criminal charges because of something he posted on the wall of a Facebook group. The 26-year-old man apparently created the group in an effort to win support for his quest to regain custody of his infant son, who was taken away from him by the Children's Aid Society.
News reports on the incident make no mention of why the child was originally taken; however, the man created the Facebook as a response to that action. Apparently, he posted several threatening messages on the group's wall (internal message board). The threats, it seems, were directed toward the nurses who had informed the Society that the infant should be removed from the man's care.
Sources indicate that one of the threatening posts indicated that the man would be doing "25 to life" when he discovered which nurse had turned him in to the Society, clearly a reference to the length of a prison sentence for those convicted of murder.
The legal issues in the case are interesting.
The man was reportedly charged with "knowingly" causing the nurses to receive threats of death or bodily harm. But his defense lawyer evidently believes these charges are unfounded.
First of all, the man had no way of "knowing" that a nurse would discover the comments he had written. Though he did not make his group "secret," which would have made it accessible only to members, he apparently didn't invite any of his "enemies" to be members, either.
And then there's the issue of the word "threat." According to the man's defense lawyer, the comments cannot be considered threats because of the Facebook medium. The lawyer's reported argument was that people use Facebook as they used to use diaries - for the recording of personal thoughts.
But the counterargument, of course, points out that Facebook is a public forum accessible to millions of people.
According to sources, the Canadian criminal code places more value on whether or not the man's threats were made seriously than whether or not he knew the nurses would receive them.
The legal issues concerning new technological innovations will likely never be able to keep pace with the innovations themselves. When sharing information on public forums, online or otherwise, it's generally a good idea to play it safe - keep in mind that a lot of people besides you are using the Internet.
