After watching the ABC story about the Steubenville rape crime, it got me thinking how often you hear about crimes that are not only posted online but police and prosecutors utilizing what people are willing to post to implicate and ultimately convict the offenders. This case in particular was almost exclusively researched and presented with evidence from cell phones and social media posts.
There are countless examples I’m sure you can all think about that fall into this category like the numerous teachers (teacher fired for online photos) (more people fired for using facebook) (10 more social idiots) that have been fired as a result of posting blogs, comments on Twitter and Facebook or elsewhere, Tiger Woods cell phone records being shown in daylight in the wake of his fateful Thanksgiving night, that it has to make you wonder when people will learn that this world is going to hell in an online hand basket.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here trying to protect anyone from posting something illicit or illegal online that should be excused for that behavior. I’m more concerned about why people think it’s ok to commit these acts and then post them in the first place.
We live in a 24/7 social media news world and the sheer number of these stories that have surfaced in just the last few years is staggering. I found it hard to find some facts around crimes posted online and subsequent conviction rates, but it makes me want to a) never have kids, or b) if I do, to flat out not allow them to have access to these types of media until they’re mature enough to realize what’s right and wrong. This is parenting on a whole new level that I think current generation parents are simply unprepared.
To bring this to a more practical topic, we were interviewing candidates a few months ago and, as part of my research before each initial in-person interview, I simply Googled their names and a few key words of common social media sites to see what came up. Shockingly enough one candidate in particular posted the most offensive and random crap on their Twitter account, including retweeting porn sites. For god’s sake, what they hell are these people thinking? He was mentally dinged automatically. I didn't say a word the entire time and simply let him go on with his life. I’m now wondering if I should just give him a heads up to get that crap offline or no one will hire him.
How do you approach social media and what you post online? I have a Twitter account but only use as a news aggregator. I seldom post much of anything on Facebook and for a while I had deactivated my account.
Lastly, I present the classic brought to us by our friend AJ. Because well, why not?
A guy from my area shot his girlfriend and was on the run, then he posted a status on Facebook that said "hey pigs, catch me if you can" and the dumbass had his post location tracker thing that says where you posted from, and they caught him 30 minutes later.
Hahaha no way
This is epic enough that they should bring back COPS and air a segment on it
hahahaha
I bet you could do a whole series on "world's dumbest criminals" just using people posting and getting caught as a result. I guess they don't realize crime units now have full divisions of people scanning social media for leads. Some of the stories are just sad though where the victims have so much backlash and public scorn as a result - not that they didn't put themselves in the position in the first place, but still..
There was one story on yahoo the other day about a guy who had repeatedly missed child support payments and justified his tardiness by claiming financial difficulty. He then took to facebook to post a bunch of "hood-rich" pictures of himself with wads of cash in rubber bands and shelves of liquor bottles. Authorities found the pictures and rejected his financial difficulty claim. He best be payin dat child support now!
here's a post i wish i saw before putting this up: http://www.webpronews.com/facebooked-the-top-10-internet-using-idiot-cr…
[quote=skylinegtr94]here's a post i wish i saw before putting this up: http://www.webpronews.com/facebooked-the-top-10-internet-using-idiot-cr…] Those are some pretty cool stories.
Not FB but close enough. Still one of my favorite audio clips is his call in to Paul Finebaum to brag about poisoning the Auburn trees. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9086566/harvey-updyke-se…
People really retweet porn websites? That's just ridiculous. He probably checks in on FB at strip clubs too.
With how integrated social media is into web browsing I am deathly afraid that I will somehow "share" porn, even in incognito mode.
Qui quia velit alias accusantium quia. Rem et cumque quo id. Qui eos quibusdam voluptas ipsam sapiente fugiat. Sed ipsa totam est expedita ut laborum. Et suscipit id velit id eos eveniet.
Itaque eum explicabo numquam voluptatum nemo voluptatem architecto. Dolor quia quas exercitationem autem. Sint molestiae et rerum dicta culpa.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...