Sued ….

or Not Sued?Limiting Liability on Social Media

Rebecca Taylor, J.D.

Siena College

Libel False LightIntrusion into

Seclusion

Publication of Private

Facts

Emotional Distress

CAUSES OF ACTION

•Break into Teams

•Pick your position

Sued … or Not Sued?

• You are the ND at a radio station. Your

reporter was on a ride-along with a

medical chopper unit when they stopped

to treat and transport a shooting victim.

Your reporter has sound of the medics

treating the patient in the air chopper en

route to the hospital. You air the sound.

Sued … or Not Sued?

• You are in the control room at the TV station covering breaking news of a shooting at a junior high school. Your photog in the field has an exclusive live shot of a shooting victim. In the frame, you can see a young girl shot in the shoulder hiding in a tree as police slowly approach. You air the footage live.

Sued … or Not Sued?

• You take a break from the control room

and, angry over a recent

breakup, decide to look at the intimate

photos you took of your then-girlfriend

using your I-phone. Bitter and

alone, you upload them to a site for

voyeurs.

Sued … or Not Sued?

• You just aired a package on your TV

station about drug use on college

campuses. The package featured a shot

of two random college students, Bill and

Ted, sitting in the quad eating

sandwiches while the reporter’s voice-

over stated “one in five college students

has tried meth.”

Sued … or Not Sued?

• You take another break, still smarting

from your breakup. This time you tweet

a picture of your ex-girlfriend (wearing

clothes) along with the caption, “Don’t

date a slut.”

• You have 4 followers.

Sued … of Not Sued?

• You are the ND at a television station. You just published a web story about about an area teacher arrested for having sex with a student. You incorrectly identify the principal as the offender, when in fact the math teacher was the culprit.

Sued … or Not Sued?

• What if you tweeted the erroneous

information, but you removed the

deleted the tweet within an hour of

learning it was incorrect?