The Grey Area of Facebook.

I think the thing we talked about class that most stuck a chord with me was the concept of something that falls under freedom of speech and yet is often considered for censorship. I remember reading the question and talking about it for a while after I wrote up my response with my wife. My response, and stance in the discussion with my wife, was that the sharing of other people's photo's online for sexual reasons was ok, so long as the photo's were obtained from the person in question. Our conversation went on over the course of a 6 hour car ride. So I was a bit disappointed to see that it wasn't discussed too heavily in class. The argument that I had was that whatever you share online, for whatever reason, is shared for all to use.

This brings to mind Alix Bromley. In 2010 she filed a number of legal complaints with various publications over pictures taken from her Bebo (a social media site) profile that ultimately left her nicknamed the "Epic Boobs Girl" Understandably miffed by this she did what she could to keep her photos from being published. The Press Complaints Commission ultimately threw out her complaint with the following statement in their adjudication.

The test, therefore, was whether the publication intruded into the complainant's privacy, and the [Editor's Code of Practice] required the [Press Complaints Commission] to have regard to "the extent to which material is already in the public domain". In the Commission's view, the information, in the same form as published in the magazine, was widely available to such an extent that its republication did not raise a breach of the Code. The complaint was not upheld on that basis.(1)

I think this is interesting, in that it states that the fact that her pictures, which she posted in one place, over 4 years earlier, were now no longer in consideration for privacy because of the actions of others. While I don't think this is wrong I think this is a prominent thing that others forget. Just like an actor or actress can suddenly become infamous due to a photo taken by a hidden photographer that is then plastered on every tabloid, a person's misgivings or raunchy photo's online can do the same.

One of the beauties of the internet, in my opinion, is that it is a place with few barriers that can't be easily overcome. While it might seem like a very secure place to the technologically naive, that misunderstanding is hardly the fault of others. Just as a police officer might tell someone that ignorance of the law excuses no one, ignorance of how the internet functions does not protect you from the malicious acts of others.