Be Careful What You Upload in Cyberspace, Warns Media Law Expert

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An Attorney and Media Law expert has warned social media users against behaving like digital age celebrities!

In a public lecture on UKZN’s Westville campus, Ms Emma Sadleir examined the legal, disciplinary and loss of reputation risks involved in the use of social media highlighting the harm that could be caused by “careless” usage of digital platforms.

She said social media users should treat everything they put online as a tattoo. ‘What you say online is much larger than what is on the front page of the Sunday Times,’ she said. 

People needed to apply the billboard rule in regard to social media. ‘If you do not want your name and your photo on a billboard, then don’t share it.’

She said the younger generation were the most vulnerable as they did not understand that whatever goes online will still be available in the next five years.

Sadleir highlighted incidents in South Africa and around the world, including the example of Justine Sacco who while travelling to South Africa tweeted: ‘Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just Kidding. I’m White!’

Sacco lost her job and found a hostile crowd of people waiting for her when she arrived at the airport in Cape Town. ‘What an employee says on social media may be a reason for dismissal.’

In the eyes of the law, a status update on a Facebook page is treated the same way as what is written on the front page of a newspaper - the legal implications are the same.

Sadleir said companies were also responsible for what was published on their social media pages. Social media platforms she spoke about included Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and Snapchat.

Her most valuable tool was Twitter which had about 5,5 million users in South Africa.

She advised people to always do the ‘jump in the tummy test’ which involves thinking twice before uploading anything. She advised users to remove the year of their birthday from personal information, turn off location services and not to allow anyone to tag them if they did do not agree with the status update.

Executive Director of Corporate Relations at UKZN, Mr Lesiba Seshoka, who said he had first-hand experience when it came to social media, advised people to be careful about what they said and how they said it.

‘You might be able to clean up your reputation but people will always remember what you did wrong,’ said Seshoka.

Much of Sadleir’s work involves creating social media strategies and policies for corporates and schools, drafting social media agency agreements and providing training and workshops on social media law. She also teaches media law to journalists and lawyers and lectures personal reputation management on the GIBS MBA.

Sadlier was an anchor for The Oscar Pistorius Trial: A Carte Blanche Channel where, for the duration of the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius, she hosted a programme discussing media law and breaking down court proceedings. She also appeared as a legal commentator for the channel.

 Sithembile Shabangu