Right: the Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police, Ken Lay, has criticised Facebook for refusing to take down a site containing material potentially prejudicial to an upcoming murder case . Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Further implications
The social media is a growing phenomenon and its implications for conventional law enforcement are enormous. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have enormous reach, giving law enforcement officers and others almost immediate contact with a vast readership.
In the Jill Meagher case, a 'missing' poster for Meagher, posted by her husband Thomas from his own Facebook account, was shared almost 3,000 times, while the 'Help us find Jill Meagher' Facebook page, set up just hours after it was announced last Sunday that she was missing, garnered over 67,000 supporters by Wednesday morning, and a further 60,000 in the next 24 hours. On Twitter, Meagher's name was mentioned more than 12 million times using #jillmeagher and #meagher hashtags, which became trending topics.
The level of interest in finding Jill Meagher allowed the police to circulate widely CCTV footage of the missing woman and an unidentified man to whom she was seen speaking, which resulted in a significant number of people coming forward to the police with information. Though the suspect was ultimately identified internally by the homicide squad, there was a very strong public response with some 550 calls to Crime Stoppers. The power of the social media to draw on public support in identifying of persons of interest or gathering other evidence is one of its great strengths.
However, there is obviously a series of negative possibilities also associated with the use of social media as a law enforcement tool. Social media sites are not regulated in the manner conventional print media is. The power of the social media message is its speed and multi-connectedness. Thousands of people can access and add to a message in a matter of hours or less. This is in part because there is no regulating influence; there is no editor to go through; no newspaper lawyers to check with; no print media standards to be met. This was evident immediately after a suspect was arrested in the Jill Meagher case, as the social media outlets that had previously sought to find Ms Meagher became filled with posters calling for the punishment of her alleged killer and, more concerningly, giving information about supposed previous crimes of which he had been convicted and others that he may have committed.
Victoria Police became alarmed that such comments would make it impossible to empanel an impartial jury and, in a worst case scenario, would create a situation where charges would have to be dismissed because there could be no fair trial.
The responsibility is a three-part one. Firstly there is the responsibility of those who manage platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Victoria Police has been scathing in its criticism of Facebook's refusal to take down potentially prejudicial material without a court order.
Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police, Ken Lay, has stated, '[Facebook] is sucking an enormous amount of money out of the community, [but] isn't prepared to invest in that community by helping it stay safe and acting in an appropriate manner...For Facebook to say to me: "Well sorry, give me a court order and we'll think about it", it just frustrates me.
That's just nonsense to me. If every business behaved like that, we'd be in a sorry state in this community.'
The second tier of responsibility rests with the users of social media. Jill Meagher's family appear to have been aware of this. Tom Meagher, Jill Meagher's husband, warned, 'While I appreciate all the support, I would just like to mention that negative comments on social media may hurt legal proceedings, so please be mindful of that.'
Victoria Police has also acknowledged that when the offending comments were finally taken down, this was by individual posters, not by Facebook.
Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police, Ken Lay, has stated, 'I just wonder if the answer isn't going to be Facebook users.
We've seen some positive signs from the Victorian community in the social media space over the last little while about changing opinions and I just wonder when the users will say "Enough's enough and this shouldn't be tolerated". That's when they'll see the light.' Thus it would appear that a growing level of education and awareness among social media users will help to reduce the number of violations of legal process that occur on the Internet.
Finally there need to be effective legal sanctions applied to those who do not adequately manage their sites within the constraints of the law or who post material that breaks the law. Some of such laws already exist; others are in the process of development. It now requires that they be more consistently applied. This in itself will be a process of education.