Social sites are not the place for police work
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From Rob Marcus, director, Chat Moderators
I read the Telegraph’s story ‘Facebook users urged to track down rapist’ [about the boyfriend of a rape victim posting a CCTV image of a suspect wanted for questioning] with great interest (29 March, telegraph.co.uk). I tend to agree with the police, who asked for the group to be removed amid fears it could jeopardise any court case.
The police published the picture of the suspect on the Manchester police website so they can investigate the reports presented to them. The trouble with using social networks to track down criminals is that you’re potentially putting other innocent people in danger of being wrongly accused. This could lead the owner of the group into a defamation case, or possibly even vigilante action.
Even if the correct person is identified, there may be a risk of contempt of court once someone is arrested. The risks to the judicial process means a successful prosecution could be jeopardised in respect of a guilty party.
The legal issues around the industry state that if people choose to speculate on the guilt or innocence of others caught up in criminal law, there’s a risk of contempt of court. The issue of privacy is now high up the legal agenda and it’s largely accepted that individuals have a right to privacy and any breach of that right, unless justified by some sort of public interest defence, can result in awards of substantial damages.
There’s a lot to take into consideration if you’re utilising the power of social media, and the law is slowly beginning to catch up with advancements in technology. Rather than celebrating this case as a first for social media in helping to track down criminals, this is a cautionary tale of the sheer power social media can have. And not all of it’s good.