Twitter and the Law

A report by a technology law expert at law firm Pinsent Masons has highlighted some of the potential dangers facing an organisation that users Twitter.

The report published, on Out-Law.com, lists the top ten potential problem areas.

From NFP Techno (the online newsletter for the Not-for-Profit sector)

Recent high profile and celebrity cases have demonstrated how easy it is to breach the bounds of reasonable behaviour. When tweeting we must all be careful not to breach (in chronological order):

• the Protection from Harassment Act 1997,

• the Communications Act 2003,

• the Fraud Act 2006,

• the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, and

the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 - to name just a few.

In my opinion, the three most likely areas that should concern non-profits are:

• tweets revealing personal or confidential information

• tweets that offend copyright regulations

• misuse of brand names and trade marks

The report concludes that Twitter raises important issues about privacy, free speech, censorship and individual rights and responsibilities and warns that legal differences exist between the UK and other countries - meaning that messages tweeted internationally could offend legislation abroad, if not in this country. Out-Law.com Report

And the Guardian has an article on this issue http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/aug/10/twitter-legal-risks

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