Court Says Social Media Sites Off Limits to Sex Offenders

A New Jersey appellate court has upheld the state parole board’s restriction disallowing convicted sex offenders from accessing social media or other comparable web sites.

Superior Court Judge,  Jack Sabatino, writing for the three judge panel, said, “we are satisfied that the Internet restrictions adopted here by the Parole Board have been constitutionally tailored to attempt to strike a fair balance.”  Judge Sabatino continued, “We recognize that websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn have developed a variety of uses apart from interactive communications with third parties.  Even so, the Parole Board has reasonably attempted to draw the line of permitted access in a fair manner that balances the important public safety interests at stake with the offenders’ interests in free expression and association.”

The defendants, several convicted sexual offenders whose cases were consolidated, challenged the constitutionality of the restrictions as infringing their First Amendment rights of free speech and association, a violation of their Due Process rights and  corresponding rights under New Jersey’s Constitution.  The restrictions stem from Megan’s Law, which is a series of laws, originally passed in New Jersey, aimed at sex offenders.  One component of Megan’s law includes a requirement that those persons convicted between 1994 and 2004 of certain sexual offenses must serve, in addition to any existing sentence, a special sentence of  “community supervision for life,” and those convicted after that date range are sentenced to “parole supervision for life.”

The New Jersey Parole Board’s restriction does provide for parolees to seek special permission for gaining access to certain sites for work or another “reasonable purpose.”  The state’s Deputy Attorney General said, “It is not the Parole Board’s intention that these provisions bar appellants from having Internet access to news, entertainment, and commercial transactions.”

The New Jersey restriction is hardly novel as these cases have been sprouting up throughout the nation with varied outcomes.  You can read the full opinion here.  

Law Enforcement and the Social Media Stakeout

Law enforcement techniques that were previously used by only federal agencies are becoming more readily accessible to law enforcement at the local level.

Police sitting in a car, with a cup of coffee in hand, waiting for something to "go down" at the building across the street is a scene we have all watched countless times in movies over the years.  While possibly not as dramatic for cinematic purposes, today police are able participate in big data stakeouts from their own desks.  At a meeting last month for the International Chiefs of Police (IACP), a cloud based service was unveiled that will allow local law enforcement to monitor social networks for evidence and clues of crimes committed in the brick and mortar world.

A piece in ArsTechnica noted that a poll of 1,200 law enforcement officers, as conducted by LexisNexis, found that four out of five officers are now using social media as part of their investigations.  New SaaS programs allow police to aggregate information culled from social media sources and then link to databases with public records to enable law enforcement to cross reference the information gathered.  The article also noted that one of the services providing this type of assistance will even "monitor the general mood of postings and pick up potential threats of violence."

While police have been using social media for some time as an aid to investigations, new technology and services are providing them with more elaborate tools to assist them with their online efforts.

Potential Landlord Liability in Facebook Stalking Case

A recent ruling by an Ohio appellate court indicates that the landlord of an apartment complex could have liability in a negligence action brought in connection with a Facebook stalking incident.

The facts of this case, as outlined by the Court of Appeals Twelfth Appellate District’s opinion, are particularly disturbing.  The case involves a single mother, Lindsay P., who resided with her young daughter in an Ohio apartment complex.  The mother complained to the management company, Towne Properties Asset Management Co., Ltd., about excessive noise, including fighting and loud music, which emanated from the apartment below.  The apartment below was occupied by both the resident named on the lease as well as her live in boyfriend who was not a party to the lease and whose presence was not contemplated by the lease terms.  The dispute eventually led to the downstairs neighbors’ boyfriend banging on Lindsay P.’s door and engaging in other intimidating behavior.  The intimidating behavior included the neighbor’s boyfriend eventually contacting Lindsay P. through her Facebook account.  He “began the exchange by stating that he knew the two had differences, that he had seen Lindsay upset and crying, and that he knew things were not ‘easy for a single mom.”  He proceeded to make apparently sexual overtures to Lindsay P. and even attached a link to a pornographic website showing a man and woman having sexual relations and who the court said “looked similar” to both Lindsay P. and her neighbor’s boyfriend.  After the matter continued to escalate in this manner and Lindsay P.’s concern and fear continued to grow, she allegedly informed the management company that she would like to leave her current residence and look for another place to live.  The management company told her that “was not an option,” but that instead she could move to a different apartment managed by the company a few blocks away.  While not an ideal alternative, as termination of the lease appeared to be rejected by the management company, Lindsay P. agreed to the move even though it was in a first floor apartment that she expressed concern over “because of safety and accessibility reasons.”  Soon after moving into the new apartment, the neighbor’s boyfriend broke into Lindsay P.’s apartment and proceeded to rape her with her young daughter in a nearby room overhearing the attack.

The record of the case indicates that the management company had been provided with a copy of the contents of the parties Facebook exchange and informed Lindsay P. to contact the local police, which she did.  “It is undisputed that the police did not pursue charges against Haynes (the neighbor’s boyfriend) because of the Facebook exchange, nor did they investigate the matter.” There was some dispute as to whether Lindsay P. had expressly requested that her lease be broken and the court reasoned that such lack of clarity was an issue of credibility that “must be determined by the trier of fact.”  Moreover, while the landlord’s “counsel suggested at oral arguments that the record did not contain evidence that Towne Properties let tenants out of their leases…’the record, however, does appear to contain such testimony.”

In the Lindsay P. v.Towne Properties Asset Management Co., Ltd. opinion the court  states that “it is cognizant that the criminal acts of third parties are very difficult to predict and that a landlord does not generally have a duty to protect its tenants from the criminal acts of third parties.  However, there are issues of fact regarding whether Towne Properties should have reasonably foreseen Haynes’s criminal activity.”

Haynes was apprehended by the police, was tried and convicted of rape and aggravated burglary and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

NY Attorney General Takes Steps to Combat Fake Social Media Reviews

Gartner predicts that by 2014 between 10% and 15% of social media reviews will be fake. This information was provided by the New York Attorney General’s office, which announced an agreement recently with 19 companies to stop them from writing fake online reviews.

 

New York Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, stated that the companies would be required to pay penalties ranging from $2,500.00 to just under $100,000.00.  Many of the companies had apparently created fake online profiles on various consumer review websites, such as Yelp, Google Local and CitySearch, and outsourced the review writing to freelancers in the Philippines, Bangladesh and Eastern Europe.  The announcement said that the false reviews violated multiple state laws against false advertising and that the companies had engaged in illegal and deceptive business practices.

The announcement revealed that under the guise of a yogurt store, the AG’s office had contacted “leading SEO companies” in New York to request assistance in combating poor reviews on the consumer sites.  Some of the SEO companies responded by offering to write positive reviews on the company’s behalf, which they said fell under their reputation management services.  It was further revealed that several of  the SEO firms had been using advanced IP spoofing techniques to hide their identities and, moreover, were setting up hundred of fake profiles.

The practice of writing fake reviews that a reasonable consumer would believe has been prepared by a neutral third-party is referred to as “astroturfing.”  Interestingly, the AG’s announcement cited a 2011 Harvard Business School study that estimated a one-star rating improvement could translate to an increase of 5% to 9% in revenues for a restaurant. 

You can read the AG’s entire announcement here.