The Internet has changed our lives in many ways. It has made communication easier and our world smaller. It has made us more vulnerable to theft. It has also had a significant impact on the law.
Many people aren’t aware of the fact that when they take to social media, they are opening themselves up to possible criminal charges. If a person’s comments are interpreted as threats, they can face serious legal consequences.
Can You Be Arrested for Social Media Threats?
In short – yes, you can. For example, two University of Missouri-Columbia students were arrested after making threats to black students in 2015. Police also arrested a 15-year-old in Georgia after threats were made to Donald Trump earlier this year. While these instances, and countless others like them, involved death threats, they also highlight the fact that police officers are not shy to take action if they believe that someone is a danger to others.
Police Surveillance of Social Media
According to an article in the Washington Post, police have the ability to consult software that analyzes a person’s potential for violence, giving that person a threat “score.” Part of the criteria for that score, in addition to arrest reports and commercial databases, are a person’s social media posts. These surveillance tools are part of a growing trend of law enforcement accessing data that many people don’t even realize will be used against them.
The technologies are affordable and easy to use, making them increasingly popular for law enforcement all around the country. Police say that having access to this information is helping them stop crime and make communities safer, but some privacy advocates are voicing concern over what they see as a disturbing intrusion into people’s personal information. For example, Oregon authorities are under an internal investigation because they monitored people simply for using Black Lives Matter hashtags.
Beware of ‘Beware’
One of the most popular technologies is threat-scoring software Beware. Beware is used to automatically search publicly available data on a person to determine their score. The score has three color-coded threat levels. Exactly how Beware weighs each set of criteria is kept secret, leaving the public in the dark. In addition to concerns over intrusion is the fact that law enforcement is consulting third-party software to monitor the lives of citizens.
Another major concern is the possibility of this type of software misinterpreting a person’s social media activity, thereby giving them a threat score that makes police more likely to make an arrest. Reports are already surfacing about instances where Beware has provided an inflated threat score, like the woman whose score was elevated because she tweeted about a card-game called “Rage.”
Be Careful What You Post
As troubling as it is that we have to be extra cautious on social media because of mysterious surveillance programs, it is important for all of us to recognize our vulnerability to these sorts of law enforcement tools. It might be unfair, and it might be a gross overreach of police authority, but, sadly, it is also a reality of the digital world we live in. So, be sure to think twice the next time you use social media to express your thoughts on an issue or another person.
If you (or a loved one) have been arrested in Kentucky or in the Lexington area in particular, call my office at (859) 685-1055 for a free consultation. Our lawyers specialize in helping defendants fight back on assault charges, misdemeanors, domestic violence, property crimes, drug charges and more, call today.