Aug
4
All of us know that blogging is a great way to express how we feel about a certain issue; however, if you do go overboard, there can be repercussions that can happen due to the posts being so visible on the web. I have provided below two stories of repercussions that have happened to individuals because of this:
Nina Yoder:
Nina Yoder is a Nursing student at the University of Louisville. She maintains a blog on her MySpace account with content such as health and pop culture. Nina just recently published a blog post relating to some other people with relationship to a health study. After this blog post had been published, the university found out about this post and had expelled Yoder from the school.
The school’s reasoning for her expulsion was because it interfered and violated the University of Louisville’s honor code. With this premise, Yoder has arranged to take legal action against the school for her to resume her class work.
(Source: WLKY)
Amanda Bonnen:
The social network microblogging service of Twitter allows you to express what you are doing and/or how you feel about a certain topic in 140 characters or less. Back in May, Chicago resident Amanda Bonnen tweeted about her experience that she had with a local real estate firm.
Popularity of Bonnen’s Tweet grew and eventually was made aware to the real estate company that her complaining was referring to. Upon the real estate’s notification of the tweet, Bonnen had a law suit filed against her due to the nature of her tweet, along with her Twitter account removed.
Other iEntry Network site WebProNews asked local tweeters about their response this issue, and I have provided this video below:
(Source: WebProNews)
What are your takes on the Yoder and Bonnen stories? Who is in the wrong, and can blogging go too far?
Popularity: 12% [?]
These are illuminative stories indeed
As long as my experience is true and not fiction, what do I have to lose? In both the cases cited, I think the defenendents have very strong cases not to win their stand that it is within their rights to blog/twitter about their personal experiences and if names have been taken, the persons concerned should take whatever action they think is needed.
Wow these are scary and interesting stories.
These are some scary stories. I will keep that in mind!
I think as long that the post can usefull for the other, it’s no problem
This is similar to the SD football player who tweeted that the training camp food was so bad that they won’t ever win a super bowl. He got fined thousands of dollars.
Slander is slander (in the eyes of the law) and rules are rules (especially where academia is concerned)
Freedom of speech is a non-negotiable in my book, and I feel that both these cases are going to prove quite ground breaking with regards to free speech online.
This is intimidating post. Good you have shared this story this gives idea to be cautious…
Scary stuff.
Well these story tells me that in the future i should be very carefuly about my posts. Again another proof that once on the internet nothing can be safe.
It’s nothing like unsafe in the blog post. You have to keep in mind that whatever you are posting that is not against someone else. It has to be informative to everyone. I also doubt that why they had to give fine. It’s your opinion. That’s it. They should file a case against them.
That is just wrong what happened to Nina, how are these schools finding random students blogs on the internet I wonder? Thanks for sharing these stories.
The thing is, you never know who is reading your posts and who will, or even MAY, be offended by what you are writing.. It sucks to know that your boss could be reading what you are writing about him on your twitter page!!
I don’t think it’s right that these things happened to these people, shouldn’t it be a free country to express what you feel and believe?
Till then,
Jean
wow, thats pretty immense! wouldnt think about that happening
I think it’s sheer-ignorance, in the first case, if the student actually signed or taken oath to the points listed down, then I think it was fair and if not, then it was absolute ignorance on part of Admin staff of School.
With second case, I am not sure what to say because I haven’t seen the nature.
Hey Chad,
Nice topic to made a post on. I believe blogging is in its that phase where you have to be more cautious while publishing like the authors are cautious about the copyright act.
A witful use of twitter and blogging can make you a person worth reading, and a ignorant use can on the contrary lead to such incidents as of Amanda Bonnen.
Thanks for sharing this story.
Thanks for Sharing this Story
Sometimes blogging goes overboard. Some bloggers do not think before they post. This is why problems and conflicts always arise. Don’t you agree?
wow…
That’s the same reaction I had when I read this.
Yes yes indeed. The approach of blogging is endless. Till the human has his creativeness the journey of blogging will never end. Instead it will grow wider and wider. The most cheapest and effective way of expressing feelings
Sure, one always needs to be careful how far and revealing they take it with blogging or with the net in general. After all that’s what creates Karma. Having said that though IMO lawsuits are totally uncalled for unless we want to go back to an oppressed society where truth cannot be reported or only in a distorted way. But, as the net has become so powerful with a train that can’t be stopped, it probably wont come to this.
Sure, one always needs to be careful how far and revealing they take it with blogging or with the net in general. After all that’s what creates Karma. Having said that though, IMO lawsuits are totally uncalled for unless we want to go back to an oppressed society where truth cannot be reported or only in a distorted way. But, as the net has become so powerful with a train that can’t be stopped, it probably wont come to this.
Wow!Really interesting story.Thanks for Sharing this Story
Especially the second story is very frightening and deeply worrying. Another example that small people are at the legal leisure of companies.
Yeah, what can you really do when a big company targets you? You can’t exactly match their legal firepower.
Thanks for the heads up. This is one piece of post worth pondering about.
People need to understand the dangers of blogging or tweeting about some one or a company who you have had dealings with. There is always the danger of a defamation law suite. If you are going to complain about a company then be factual and do not call them names.
Also you should have some kind of proof of your dealings and your side of the story in case they come after you and try to make trouble. In the case of the real estate company I have also had bad experience with a small local company.
what they did was to post my listing in the MLS with totally wrong information so not other Realtors would not bother with the listing, this was done so they would not have to share any commission with another agent or firm.
I have caught on to this and had to threaten legal action and deal with excuses such as “I updated it”, it should show the right info soon. A week later the same info was still there.
When I contacted them I got the same thing again, just line after line of total BS. There were other things they did also, I could write a book. I finally sold the dang house and was so pissed off I just wanted to forget the whole thing so I did not post anything online.
I would have had a hard time proving anything and I knew they were snakes so I did not take the chance they would sue me later. I told everyone I could about exactly what they did but made sure I was factual and did not use derogotory terms even though that was what I wanted to use.
Bottom line is document everything that happens and just be careful what you say online. Keep it to what you can prove if need be. This way you are pretty safe but prepared just in case.
Document everything that happens before you post it online. As long as you have proof there should be not much danger of a law suit.
It is silly that companies can sue people over negative comments online. What ever happened to free speech? Why can a person not explain their negative experiences with a company? It just doesn’t make sense.
Some bloggers do take it too far.
I think the story about Nina is a massive overreaction from the university – there must have been more too it…?
Unless you blog under an anonymous name, you have to be very careful about what you write on the internet. With business blogs like ones on this website, http://www.amandaonmyside.com.au/, you should only write about business matters.
If you do speak about an issue that affects a client or you have an issue with a particular company, you should speak about the issue at hand and the solution but not name and shame.
With personal blogs, so much is at stake. It is not worth losing your blog, your friends or upsetting a family member over a rant on a website that you think can’t be traced back to you. A lot of companies do searches on the internet to screen potential candidates so you need to be mindful of that as well.
woow this is scaring , but as a blogger you sure have to take some precautions to avoid such problems
I think so..
some blogger do take it so far….
anyways !! thank you for story !!
what’s wrong with the world? can people no longer express their opinion? this is so unfair to blame a person on writing his own thoughts! and what’s next? they will sue us for talking to friends? god, this is so wrong! let’s support blogging! and defend our rights!
Yes the court system seems to gradually be taking away the right of free speech. It seems like whenever someone says something that someone else doesn’t like, they get taken to court. It’s brutal. People need to just lighten up and defend their reputation fairly.
I’m sure there are bound to be many more cases like this over the coming years. People seem to think they have the right to say whatever they want online without any repercussions. In time they will realize that this is not the case. While there may be right to freedom of speech, that has limits too.
You definitely have to be very cautious in what you write to the public, you never know…
This is a wake up call for some bloggers that goes overboard.
When you read through these stories, you cannot hide that this is scary stuff. This shows that with everything there is a limit. If you exaggerate with blogging then you gonna have to bear its consequences….