Yes, his post was stupid and careless, but he was being sarcastic about the Sandy Hook situation. The authorities saw the post and arrested the teen for making a terroristic threat. I agree that any type of threat needs to be investigated, but for him to face these kinds of consequences for a sarcastic comment defies his civil liberties.
Schools are even paying companies to track social media posts by their students in order to look at cyber-bullying and potential suicide posts. All of that is good, but when a kid gets expelled for dropping a few F-bombs in a tweet, the line has been crossed. If it does not happen on school grounds, I do not think the school has any business getting involved in these types of situations. At most, the school should alert the child's parents so that they can handle it the way they want to. Who knew that a child's parents could punish them better than the government/school? This gets to a point where the government is having too much control and access to people's lives. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/careful-what-you-tweet-police-schools-tap-social-media-track-4B11215908
At any rate, people need to understand that whatever they post on social media sites can and probably will be seen by the government. If you've read George Orwell's 1984, this all may be sounding really familiar. It should not even be an issue, but people need to start thinking before they Tweet. If you make a threat of some sort, even if you are being sarcastic, the government will find you and punish you accordingly.
Personally, I'm not a fan of anyone or anything, especially a government entity, "tracking" social activity. I obviously understand the need to investigate social media when someone is suspected of a crime, but "tracking" implies constant monitoring so that people can be punished for saying things out of line.
ReplyDeleteI would say that the freedoms that we enjoyed are being taken away. The investigation of you and what you say on social media by the federal government is a joke. Why should you be under the radar if you have not done anything to deserve being watched.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of schools and governments tracking social media isn't something I've ever agreed with. I don't think schools have any right to monitor their students outside of the school. While yes, we must deal with idiots who make bad comments on the internet, I don't think they should be arrested for it. I think there should be have to be a little more than a status update. These cases are becoming more and more widespread and its getting uncomfortable that we can't post anything anymore without worrying about triggering some NSA keyword and having our computer monitored.
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