Civil and Criminal Cases and Twitter

Fleming, Marka B., and Jean T. Wells. "Ethical, Evidentiary, and Constitutional Concerns OF Utilizing Social Networking Web Sites in Civil and Criminal Cases: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Southern Law Journal 20.1 (2010): 23-52. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.

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In this article, authors Marka Fleming and Jean Wells talk about how social networking sites can be used in civil and criminal cases in the U.S. today, mostly in cases of suing or complaints. Fleming and Wells talk about their concerns with the idea of obtaining evidence on an individual from a social networking site. The authors think that this can be a bad idea because it is hard to say “whether the information can be authenticated and whether it constitutes inadmissible hearsay evidence.” They also state that the government could be violating the 4th amendment by obtaining the evidence without consent of the owner. The authors go on to say that “information contained on social networking sites can be authenticated and will not be barred as inadmissible hearsay evidence.” They also stated that they have not gotten answers to the ethical or constitutional challenges because the issue is still fairly new.

Marka Fleming and Jean Wells’ point of view is useful to the reader because it shows some of the cons of social networks. Facebook and Twitter are known for being able to keep up with friends and being an easy and convenient way to communicate, but rarely do you see the parts of them that can be unbeneficial to the user. Anything that you put on social networks can be used against you if it can be authenticated. The authors’ point of view also helps the reader see that this can be a good thing because social networks have the potential to help capture certain criminals by their information on social networks. The opinion presented by the authors also presents a very debatable issue, because it shows the good and the bad of Twitter and Facebook. The reader should take this point of view into consideration because it presents information in a very unbiased way, helping the reader form their own opinion with material that does not promote one side or another.