Abstract
What makes the twenty-first century truly global? To this question, journalism and mass communication educators and students most likely will respond, “The Internet.” Few of those outside journalism and mass communication will demur. No matter what we are doing on the Internet, we are engaging in global communication—wittingly or unwittingly.
Journalism professor Mark Pearson, formerly of Bond University and currently of Griffith University in Australia, is keenly aware of the Internet’s transnational impact on our communication in its legal context. His “small book,” titled Blogging & Tweeting without Being Sued, is for those social media users who tend to ignore their status as “international publishers” (p. ix).
Pearson, who specializes in media law, notes, “My aims are modest: to introduce you to some common legal principles that broadly apply to online publishing in many parts of the world and to bring them to life with the stories of bloggers and social media users who have encountered them” (p. x).
These days, more books on the law of social media are on the market. For example, Social Media and the Law (Daxton R. Stewart, ed., 2013) and Social Media and the Law (Kathryn L. Ossian, ed., 2013) have been published this year. The former is “a guidebook for communication students and professionals,” while the latter targets law practitioners as a legal treatise. The publication of these and other social media law books should be hardly surprising. As a New York judge stated in 2012, “The reality of today’s world is that social media, whether it be Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ or any other site, is the way people communicate” (People v. Harris, 945 N.Y.S.2d 505, 507 n.3, N.Y. Crim. Ct. 2012).
What sets Pearson’s book apart from other social media books? It is globally encompassing (“Let’s think globally”), and it is refreshingly informative and readable. Nearly all the major topics are examined in the nine-chapter book: defamation (Ch. 2), free speech versus fair trial (Ch. 3), anonymous speech (Ch. 4), privacy (Ch. 5), confidentiality (Ch. 6), hate speech (Ch. 7), copyright (Ch. 8), and censorship and national security (Ch. 9).
Chapter 1: “Down to Basics” surveys the risks of “going global in a flash” by highlighting several Internet cases. It touches on “conflict of laws,” “publication” in libel law, “public interest” (the public has a stake) versus “public’s interest” (the public is just curious), and other significant legal concepts.
American law is treated more extensively in the book than is the law of other countries. The defamation chapter is a case in point. Pearson discusses Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act that immunizes Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from liability for third parties’ comments. He also points out the American “actual malice” rule as a uniquely media-friendly defense against libel lawsuits by public figures. In this connection, he could have more clearly differentiated the constitutional malice (knowing falsity or reckless disregard for the truth) in the First Amendment law from the common law malice (spite or ill will).
Pearson is correct: “The First Amendment doesn’t have a passport.” As an illustration, he tells the story of the U.S.-based blogger Gopalan Nair, a native of Singapore. Nair was jailed in Singapore for sixty days for blogging his bare-knuckled criticisms of a Singaporean judge. It is noteworthy, however, that American free speech law has been influential to freedom of speech abroad in varying degrees—with good reason. The leading First Amendment scholar Rodney A. Smolla observed in the early 1990s: “American thinking on freedom of speech is relevant to the rest of the world because our experience in wrestling with free speech conflicts and communications policy is unusually rich. American society may not have the best answers, but it has thought about the problems more” (Free Speech in an Open Society, 1992, p. 347).
In the privacy chapter, Pearson notes a New Zealand Court of Appeal case on a breach of privacy claim. The privacy test that the New Zealand court introduced was imported from American law on the “disclosure of embarrassing facts.” A more recent example of the U.S. influence on foreign law is the Argentine Supreme Court’s application of the American “neutral reportage” doctrine in an ISP case (Eduardo Bertoni, “Argentina Supreme Court Protects Online Reposting Intermediary Liability Doctrine: Same Wine in New Bottle?” October 31, 2013, goo.gl/8EMpks, accessed November 8, 2013). The impact of American law on other countries (or lack thereof) might have deserved critical attention in the book. This would have more comparatively informed Pearson’s discussion of numerous foreign Internet laws and cases.
Pearson’s social media law discussion is discerningly documented with hyperlinked endnotes, and his book is comprehensively indexed. For those who wish to delve further into social media law, the author devotes ten pages to listing freedom of expression NGOs, social media law research centers, social media “blawgers,” and social media law twitterers. On the resource list are more than a dozen books on media and Internet law, including Australian libel attorney Matthew Collins’s highly acclaimed book, The Law of Defamation and the Internet (3rd ed., 2010).
As Pearson acknowledges, social media law is changing fast. The pressing question for many of us whose lives are closely interlinked with social media is how to keep up with the rapidly evolving law. Some readers of Blogging & Tweeting without Getting Sued might be wondering if the book is rather dated. If so, does the author update his book for its readers by maintaining a companion website, or is he already working on the revised second edition of the book? The readers’ concern cannot be dismissed blithely, since all the cited sources and the listed resources in the book are on the Internet. Some of the links, if not all, will inevitably confront the “link rot” problem sooner or later.
Meanwhile, identifying and addressing social media-related legal issues is compellingly important to journalism and mass communication educators within and outside the classroom. To them, Blogging & Tweeting without Getting Sued will be an excellent text, especially if they teach freedom of online speech. Its central theme, “Legally, we’re all ‘publishers,’” couldn’t be more relevant as part of the international marketplace of ideas. Many journalism and mass communications students need to be challenged to cultivate a sharp sense of the risks they will face as bloggers and social media users. It is no wonder that the reviewer has ordered Pearson’s book for his “Digital Freedom” class.