Facebook and MySpace for the Prosecution
Facebook and MySpace are a lot of fun. Just ask anyone. It’s great to get on your profile and talk about what you are doing and what you think about. You might even get a little carried away, bragging to your friends about what you did last Saturday night and with whom. Yet increasingly, prosecutors are requesting and getting FaceBook and MySpace entries along with your phone records when you get in trouble in the military. Your own words could come back to you and help convict you of a crime under the Military’s Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Here are some helpful things to consider when chatting to your “Friends” about what you’ve been up to:
1. When you start typing on FaceBook, ask yourself if you wouldn’t mind if your Mom read it.
2. Be careful about code words and inferences. It’s just like safeguarding classified material at work. All the security training we get in the military reminds us to not use code words. If you aren’t on a classified computer or phone line – don’t say it. Same goes with FaceBook – it’s open comms to your Friends, and to their friends. Are you sure you want everyone to know?
3. Don’t admit to wrong-doing, defined as either illegal acts under the UCMJ or immoral acts the press will grab onto and convict you in public court. Take for example Michael Phelps, the Olympic champion. One picture at a party, taken on cell phone and placed on YouTube or FaceBook has incriminated him, caused a media nightmare and he may end up being charged.
Don’t make your Defense Attorney’s job harder by handing the prosecution a confession or proof of intent. Defense lawyers can argue an expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures on FaceBook to keep the prosecution from using it against you in court. But chances of that succeeding are slim as it is widely accepted that opening up your FaceBook to your Friends and their Friends means you are putting that information out into the public domain.
