The social media party has been raging for over a decade. While law enforcement was late to the party, they are crashing it big time now, and mining it for evidence, identifications, and witnesses.
The uses of social media by law enforcement run the gamut from a praiseworthy public service to a troubling Orwellian nightmare.
PUBLIC SAFETY
Many agencies are using social media to alert people to public safety issues, like a detour, accident, or Amber Alert. Recently, I received an alert that my son’s school was shut down as a result of law enforcement activity. Yeah, gulp. All of these uses promote public safety, even if they do occasionally cause heart palpitations.
POSTING EVIDENCE AGAINST YOURSELF
While most people do not read the fine print on social media platforms, all of these terms surrender the content posted by a user to the platform. Additionally, NOTHING you ever post is truly deleted. Many people broadcast a significant portion of their lives on social media, including a rash of live streamed criminal acts. You have no right to privacy when you post to social media, even if your profile is set to private.
A few things to consider, particularly if you are on parole or probation:
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1. Posting a photo of yourself holding a gun, particularly when you are prohibited from having a firearm or have not obtained that firearm legally, is an invitation for law enforcement scrutiny. If you have a prior felony, your post could land you 16 months to 3 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
2. Cash is king, but flashy displays of cash (or other icons of material wealth) on social media invite all kinds of trouble. From both law enforcement to robbers, flashing wealth could lead to poor outcomes (see Kim Kardashian jewelry robbery in Paris).
3. If a condition of your probation or parole is to NOT go to a bar or liquor store, do not post images of you doing either. Social media has become a tool of probation / parole officers. It’s an easy way for officers to ID a VOP.
4. Trolling, harassing or posting threats. All of these things can make you look like a great suspect or be used against you in court. Sometimes, the context of these kinds of messages can be misconstrued to look sinister, and it is unlikely you will remember the context of a comment years later.
5. Your DMs. These are 100 percent available to law enforcement via warrant. In fact, even some of the “safe” platforms (i.e., Telegram, What’s App, and Signal) can retain conversations and data.
What you post on social media can be used against you.
SOCIAL MEDIA LEADS TO WRONGFUL ARRESTS
The darker side of law enforcement’s use of social media is facial recognition. Long story short, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Facial recognition is particularly bad at accurately identifying people of color, which leads to wrongful arrests and convictions. It can also derail law enforcement from identifying the actual perpetrator of a crime.
According to an article on The Marshall Project, U.S. law enforcement has used the Clearview facial recognition search over a million times. Clearview has a database of over 30 billion photos, mostly acquired from social media.
A Wired magazine article profiled three black men who were wrongfully identified by facial recognition technology. According to Wired, the charges against the men were eventually dropped; however, that does not erase the distress, expense, and loss of liberty stemming from the arrests. Nearly every state uses facial recognition software, Wired reports. This compounds the problems created by the nascent, fallible AI technology.
Social media is evidence. Potentially, you are giving up Third, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights (i.e., privacy rights and right against self-incrimination) by posting on social media. Be aware of this as you post.
The information provided herein does not constitute legal advice, nor is it a substitute for your own legal research. If you have questions, Wentworth Law Firm offers free consultations.