Think before you post online, stalker issues and more by Nick Kemp

Its increasingly important to think before you post online especially with an increasing amount of stalker activity. I have noticed a trend in recent times of comments made on online forums and social networking sites now coming under greater scrutiny. A national newspaper reported the latest example of a public figure posting on twitter without perhaps fully considering the consequences of her actions  –

“Sally Bercow today finally deleted her Twitter account – after revealing she had her ‘a**-whipped’ by her lawyer and husband over her latest legal blunder. The most recent high-profile error was naming a British runaway schoolgirl protected by a court order – with her her final tweet revealing the intervention from a lawyer and the Speaker of the Commons. The breach prompted calls for her to ‘turn off Twitter’ to avoid any more legal problems. It also appears her account may have been hijacked overnight, as at 2.21am a tweet in broken English appeared under her name calling her a ‘stupid woman’. Naming the teenager means Mrs Bercow could face a £5,000 fine for contempt of court after breaching the order which bans revealing the identity of the girl who allegedly ran away with her teacher to France this year”

I’m amazed at how so many people make really unwise posts online. One of the problems is that in an era of instant communication, people can get a rush of blood to the head and vent feelings which can be libellous. Often these are attention seeking individuals and stalker types who just can’t help spouting out daily thoughts online, with appreciating the potential downside of engaging in such behaviours. Anyone in the public domain or talking a stance can be targeted by commercial competitors and/or jealous parties. Some offenders and stalkers can become hyperactive in their malicious activities, posting hundreds of comments. I have personal experience of some of the craziness that can occur online, and have sympathy for anyone who has been subjected to such personal attacks, especially when there is no means for immediate redress. The best advice for anyone in such situations is to quietly gather and document information and seek professional advice. You may have to wait a while before you can hold such characters to account of course, so patience is essential in such situations. One stalker based in Ireland is known to be sending thousands of malicious e-mails to a number of therapists!

Many people forget that facilities like Facebook are commercial businesses beholding to shareholders and the Facebook customer is the advertiser, NOT the user! In the USA car salesman Robert Becker said he was fired for online posts making fun of the cheap food served at an event where he worked. His boss said he terminated Becker for other online posts, which mocked an accident at an adjoining dealership in which a 13-year-old drove a Land Rover into a pond. The judge found that posting about the food was protected concerted activity. That’s because employees had been discussing them together at work, and if skimping on snacks hurt sales, workers’ commissions would suffer too. But the judge upheld the firing based on Becker’s boss’ testimony that the Land Rover posts, which weren’t protected, were the ones that cost him his job.

The internet allows unprecedented levels of sharing information. However this also creates all manner of craziness online and I have personal experience of some of this! Facebook in particular is a great place for potential employers to check on applicants and many FB posters really don’t engage brain before posting unwise comments online. There is of course a difference between “fair comment” and quite ludicrous and unsubstantiated comments which are very easy to disprove without a great deal of effort! There are also now 60 or so new apps that allow for what Facebook execs are calling “frictionless sharing”, nearly every aspect of your life is potentially on display for stalkers to follow.  I anticipate increasing numbers of legal initiatives to address such matters and of course ultimately there is always a balance between maintaining free speech and avoiding total censorship. From what I see on my online forums the trend of stupidity does not seem like it’s going to end anytime soon. My view is that it’s always smart to engage brain and think before you post online and make public comments that can be seen by the world at large.

Unfortunately some characters have such extreme obsessions regarding posting unwise comments that ultimately they find themselves in legal difficulties not appreciating the need for basic good manners in communication! As previously stated if you are ever unfortunate to be on the receiving end of such stalker obsessions, simply catalogue all exchanges, never interact and pass information to the appropriate authorities who deal with these attention seeking individuals…