Should everything on facebook be considered free speech?

I just got to wondering - every single one of us is guaranteed the right to freedom of speech, but how often do you wish that people on Facebook would be careful of what they say?

There have been numerous reports in today's media about students who bully their fellow classmates  through social media like Facebook or Twitter. My sister is actually a victim of cyber-bullying. Unlike many of the cases in the news, she chose to rise above it and ignore what other people were saying about her. That does not mean, however, that it was easy for her to ignore the mean things people would say. She was extremely self-conscious, and the things people would write about her didn't help her self-esteem at all. I can recall many nights where she would cry herself to sleep. As her older sister, I couldn't believe how cruel some of these things were - and this was when she was in the sixth grade! 


Many parents who come to the defense of their bullying children will state that "they were just being kids, they didn't mean anything by it." But does that mean that the things that they post should be protected if they were being malicious? Personally, I don't think they should. Sure, many of us go around using our Facebook status updates like our best friend, we vent about the things that are bothering us and we don't usually think about how they will affect others.

This same question could be posed regarding students who write negative information about their teachers on social media websites. In a case here in Florida, a student created a Facebook page about her AP English teacher and named it "Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever met." I don't know about you, but that seems rather innocent to me. If she had said something like this to one of her classmates in the hall, would it have been seen as bullying? Probably not. However, since she posted this as a Facebook group, the student was sued by her teacher for "cyber-bullying." I know what you're thinking - how on earth does is this equal to the cyber-bullying that has caused many teens to take their own lives? In my opinion, it doesn't! This student was probably just extremely stressed about a bad grade in the class and needed to vent. It doesn't seem to be in a malicious context like many of the other accounts of cyber-bullying that we hear about.


CNN posted an article about this case and Facebook "gripes" being protected by freedom of speech. You can read more about this here: Facebook gripes protected by free speech

Now, I don't know about you, but I do much better to watch a video about something than to read a long article. If this is the type of person you are, you can hear more about the case discussed in the CNN article in the YouTube video below:

 

I guess we should really view our first amendment right this way: Yes, we all have a right to say what we want - at least as long as it is within reason.

Be careful of what you say and what you post because someone could read into it differently than the way you meant.

Word Count: 553