Watch What You Tweet

“BREAKING: Confirmed flooding on NYSE. The trading floor is flooded under more than 3 feet of water.” “BREAKING: MTA announces NYC subways will be closed for remainder of the week. All major lines are flooded and will require repair.”

These two tweets alone by @ConfortablySmug (now known to be Shashank Tripathi, campaign manager for Republican Congressional Candidate Christopher Wight) were retweeted more than 500 times and were adopted as true by various media outlets across the nation, understandably causing varying degrees of panic before these and other similar tweets were debunked.

Now, at least one city councilman, is calling for criminal charges to be filed against Mr. Tripathi. Peter Vallone, Jr., a former District Attorney, has asked Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance to look into filing criminal charges. While Mr. Vallone has admitted that it will be a difficult case to make, his intent is that the consideration of criminal charges will deter others from tweeting or otherwise dispersing false information in these types of situations in the future.

Supporting his position, Mr. Vallone noted the example of shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theater. Finding its origin in Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s opinion in Schenck v. United States, “falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater” was interpreted not to be protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court’s decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio later limited the scope of banned speech to that which would directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action.

No matter what happens, this certainly represents the necessity for social media users to be mindful of what they post.

Source: http://gothamist.com/2012/10/31/councilman_peter_vallone_wants_to_c.php http://www.shearsocialmedia.com/2012/11/is-it-crime-to-intentionally-tweet.html

For more information, please visit our social media law service page.

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