Crime
Related to the Social Networking Site Twitter
What's a twitter, you say? Twitter, Facebook, any social networking site
for that matter, can get you in hot
water without you even knowing it until it's too late. Can you be held accountable, arrested, even
found guilty of a crime for mere words you tweeted or a video you shared with
your followers? You better believe
it! Crime is on the rise in the social
networking realm, ranging from "scams to online bullying" (Murphy, 2011). The following essay will describe how
information on Twitter is presented to the user, noting the areas that are
public vs. private. An article
describing a crime conducted via Twitter will be provided explaining how the
SNS was used to conduct the offense and the areas that were central to the
investigation.
Twitter is used by many around the world to let their
followers know what their status is at the whim of the individual
twittering. Twitter is a social
networking site that connects individuals to what is happening now, the latest
stories and trends, ideas, opinions and news by simply finding the account that
is most interesting and following the conversation (About Twitter, 2012). According to Twitter's guidelines for law
enforcement page, most of an individual's twitter profile information is
public, meaning anyone can see the profile photo, header photo, background
image, an optional biography, and a person's status updates which are referred
to as "tweets" (Guidlines for Law Enforcement, 2012).
Profile information that can be publicly viewed also
includes an individual's name and user name, location, and cell phone
number. However, one can use the control
your settings option to prevent ones location from being given publicly each
time they put out a tweet and they can also select tweets to be private or
protected which allows the tweets to be viewed by authorized followers only (About Public and Protected Tweets, 2012). A Twitter user can give permission for
Twitter to share their information to third parity web clients but Twitter does
have the right to disclose personal information if they believe "that it
is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request; to
protect the safety of any person; to address any fraud, security or technical
issues; or to protect Twitter's rights or property" (Previous Twitter Privacy Policy Version 2, 2012).
One particular story that made pretty big headlines
concerning a crime committed via Twitter was about Dharun Ravi. According to The New York Times, in September
of 2010, Mr. Ravi, who used to attend Rutgers University, used a hidden webcam
to capture his roommate kissing a man and then streamed the interaction between
his roommate and the companion all over the internet, using his Twitter account
to intimidate and embarrass his roommate (Dhaurn Ravi, 2012).
The young man who Mr. Ravi spied upon and set out to maliciously attack
was Tyler Clementi, who later committed suicide by jumping from the George
Washington Bridge on Sept 22, 2010, after learning his romantic interlude had
gone viral due to Mr. Ravi's actions (Dhaurn Ravi, 2012).
What helped the investigation was Mr. Ravi's exact
Twitter feeds that were publicly seen by all of his followers and, once up,
could be altered by the original poster. But, upon review of the records of the
account, an investigator can see the original posts and use them in the
case. Which is exactly what the
detective on the case did. Detective
Charydczak discovered that the deceased, Mr. Clementi, one day before his
death, had captured and saved a
screenshot of one of Mr. Ravi's twitter posts
that read "Roommate asked for the room until midnight. I went into Molly's room and turned on my
webcam. I saw him making out with a
dude. Yay." (Dhaurn Ravi, 2012).
There were several Twitter feeds that Mr. Ravi posted in
regards to Mr. Clementi's relationship that evening that were the sole reason
why Mr. Ravi had charges filed against him.
It is clear to see that he led to Mr. Clementi's unstable mental health,
driving the young man over the edge literally, but he wasn't charged with Mr.
Clementi's death. On March 16 of 2012,
Mr. Ravi was convicted in New Jersey Superior Court in Middlesex County of bias
intimidation of a hate crime and for "tampering with evidence and
witnesses for tying to change Twitter and text messages in which he encouraged
others to watch the webcam" (Dhaurn Ravi, 2012).
Even though Mr. Ravi faced up to 10 years of jail time, he was only
sentenced to 30 days in jail, which he only served 20 days, three years'
probation, 300 hours of community service, much need cyber bullying and
alternate lifestyles counseling and a probation fee of $10,000 (Dhaurn Ravi, 2012).
To conclude, the case mentioned above is just one of many
that represent the struggles that gays, lesbians and bisexual young adults,
combined with cyber bullying, face around every corner. As these cases continue, cyber bullying laws
will get stricter in hopes of protecting the innocent victims. Many still don't realize that, with a simple
click, they could be committing a crime or they feel they are safe behind their
computer. These people need to wise up
because they will get caught. In most
cases, and it is a real shame, they are caught after a person commits suicide.
We can only hope that, with more awareness concerning this issue, individuals
will stop using social networking sites to dole out their hate, jealousy, and
even fears onto their victims. It is a
very public world out there and what you type may come back to haunt you.
Works Cited
About Public and Protected Tweets. (2012). Retrieved 12 12, 2012, from Twitter Help
Center:
http://support.twitter.com/articles/14016-about-public-and-protected-tweets#
About Twitter. (2012). Retrieved 12
12, 2012, from Twitter: https://twitter.com/about
Dhaurn Ravi. (2012, 06 21).
Retrieved 12 12, 2012, from The New York Times:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/dharun_ravi/index.html
Guidelines for Law Enforcement.
(2012). Retrieved 12 12, 2012, from Twitter Help Center:
http://support.twitter.com/articles/41949-guidelines-for-law-enforcement%23#
Murphy,
S. (2011, 08 11). Facebook Crimes on the Rise, Experts Warn. Retrieved
12 11, 2012, from FoxNews.com: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/08/11/facebook-crimes-on-rise-experts-warn/
Previous Twitter Privacy Policy Version 2. (2012). Retrieved 12 12, 2012, from Twitter:
https://twitter.com/privacy/previous/version_2
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