![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.rackafracka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/twitter-cartoon-w.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI remember the innocent days when \u201ctweet\u201d brought to mind images of chirping birds. Now \u201ctweet\u201d paints a picture of light blue logo and 140 character remarks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With huge popularity of social networking amongst young people, it is only natural that microbloggers also encompass a young demographic. However, with all this it is important for users to remain cognizant of any and all repercussions for online speech.<\/p>\n
Case in point: In mid-November 2011, a teenage girl posted a less-than-flattering tweet about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback. She was in attendance at a Youth in Government program, and during the governor\u2019s presentation, she posted (as a joke) \u201cJust made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.” Keep in mind that Emma Sullivan (the girl in question) had only 65 Twitter followers at this time and Governor Brownback is currently controversially supporting a veto for the state\u2019s art commission budget.<\/p>\n
As swiftly as Sullivan\u2019s fingers typed in her tweet, Emma\u2019s school administrators received upset calls from the governor\u2019s office. Shawnee Mission East administrators reprimanded Emma and demanded that she write an apology to Gov. Brownback for her offensive comment.\u00a0In essence, they were saying that her post was highly disrespectful and arguably humiliating for the school and Youth in Government program she was representing.<\/p>\n
But can she legally be forced to write an apology as punishment?<\/p>\n
Sullivan\u2019s family clearly thinks not; they have taken this story to the media, creating a free speech martyr out of their daughter.\u00a0On November 27, 2011, Emma Sullivan announced that she would, in fact, not be apologizing at all.<\/p>\n
You would expect a First Amendment free speech\/school speech\/online speech battle of epic proportions to erupt, right?<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, Gov. Brownback\u2019s office soon issued an apology for this whole incident, citing it as an \u201coverreaction.\u201d Indeed, that\u00a0maneuver\u00a0was a very diplomatic way to put this in the past before it actually became national headlines; however, in terms of clarifying cyberlaw, this illustrates a thoroughly wasted opportunity.<\/p>\n
In our culture where puerile rudeness can be celebrated and anyone can change the world in 140 characters or less, it is important to not lose sight of the pillars of free speech. Excessive regulation and thin skin only stifles debate. Clearly articulated online dialogue can and will serve to foster a more multi-faceted context to communicate.\u00a0(please note, I am by no means saying that Emma Sullivan was \u201cclear\u201d or \u201carticulate\u201d)<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s be mindful of what we say, but not let extreme civility impede our message from spreading. #gettingoffmysoapbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I remember the innocent days when \u201ctweet\u201d brought to mind images of chirping birds. Now \u201ctweet\u201d paints a picture of light blue logo and 140 character remarks. With huge popularity of social networking amongst young people, it is only natural that microbloggers also encompass a young demographic. However, with all this it is important for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56218,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-j","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/cyberspaceincourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}