The Internet has transformed the way we learn and consume information. If you’re like me, you’ve used YouTube more than once to learn how to do something around the house. Social media sites like Facebook allow us to stay connected with faraway friends and family to a degree we could not before, while allowing us to share information widely with very little effort. Indeed, we often learn important information by crowdsourcing - putting out a general request, and then getting information from a number of people that hopefully leads to the answer we need.
As with everything in life, there are good and bad things about this part of our lives. While sometimes the information is good, sometimes it is bad. Just because your cousin who barely graduated high school shares a meme on Facebook doesn’t mean that he knows what he’s talking about, nor does it mean the person who created the meme knows what they’re talking about.
One example of this is the widely-shared post about denying Facebook permission to use your pictures. The most-recent version starts off “The new Facebook/Meta rule starts tomorrow where they can use your photos. Don't forget the deadline is today! This could be used in lawsuits against you. Everything you've ever posted is posted today - even messages that have been deleted. It doesn't cost anything, just copy and post, better than regretting later.” What follows in this excessively-long post is a bunch of nonsense, much of which mis-cites the Uniform Commercial Code (the UCC), purportedly explaining how Facebook can’t use your photos. Can’t hurt to post it, right?
The problem with this is that, like most non-lawyer sources that cite to the UCC (or for that matter, are rife with typos), it’s nonsense. You cannot use Facebook and then deny them the right to use your photos - that’s part of your user agreement that you probably clicked through without reading (like all of us do). Specifically, a part of that agreement reads as follows: “When you share, post, or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights on or in connection with our Products, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings.” This boils down to if you share it on their site, they can use it. Posting that nonsense about purportedly denying Facebook permission to use your pictures just makes you sound dumb.
Another example is the often-shared meme that reads something like this: “The Constitution actually says you can overthrow the government if it’s tyrannical.” The problem is that the U.S. Constitution says precisely the opposite. Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution defines the crime of treason as “levying war against [the United States].” After the Civil War, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment barred many of those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against [the United States]” from holding federal office. Not one word in the Constitution authorizes overthrowing a tyrannical government.
So where does this come from? Sadly, probably half-remembered lessons from history classes. While the Constitution does not recognize any right of revolution, the Declaration of Independence does. In explaining why they felt it necessary to revolt, the Founding Fathers declared: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” The Declaration is a hallowed document in American tradition, and is rightly revered for its place in American history. However, it is not a part of the Constitution, or even a part of American law. So if you do something excessively foolish, like storming the Capitol, don’t go thinking that your citation of this meme is going to cut any ice with the federal judge deciding whether you should go to prison.
The thing to remember is to treat information you see on the Internet like you would if someone just said something to you in person. If it sounds too good to be true, or if it sounds like they are just repeating something they don’t actually know anything about, then you’re probably better off not relying on it. The Internet, like fire, is a good servant but a bad master.
A version of this article was published in the December 2, 2021 edition of The Madill Record, and it is republished here by permission.
As with everything in life, there are good and bad things about this part of our lives. While sometimes the information is good, sometimes it is bad. Just because your cousin who barely graduated high school shares a meme on Facebook doesn’t mean that he knows what he’s talking about, nor does it mean the person who created the meme knows what they’re talking about.
One example of this is the widely-shared post about denying Facebook permission to use your pictures. The most-recent version starts off “The new Facebook/Meta rule starts tomorrow where they can use your photos. Don't forget the deadline is today! This could be used in lawsuits against you. Everything you've ever posted is posted today - even messages that have been deleted. It doesn't cost anything, just copy and post, better than regretting later.” What follows in this excessively-long post is a bunch of nonsense, much of which mis-cites the Uniform Commercial Code (the UCC), purportedly explaining how Facebook can’t use your photos. Can’t hurt to post it, right?
The problem with this is that, like most non-lawyer sources that cite to the UCC (or for that matter, are rife with typos), it’s nonsense. You cannot use Facebook and then deny them the right to use your photos - that’s part of your user agreement that you probably clicked through without reading (like all of us do). Specifically, a part of that agreement reads as follows: “When you share, post, or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights on or in connection with our Products, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings.” This boils down to if you share it on their site, they can use it. Posting that nonsense about purportedly denying Facebook permission to use your pictures just makes you sound dumb.
Another example is the often-shared meme that reads something like this: “The Constitution actually says you can overthrow the government if it’s tyrannical.” The problem is that the U.S. Constitution says precisely the opposite. Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution defines the crime of treason as “levying war against [the United States].” After the Civil War, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment barred many of those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against [the United States]” from holding federal office. Not one word in the Constitution authorizes overthrowing a tyrannical government.
So where does this come from? Sadly, probably half-remembered lessons from history classes. While the Constitution does not recognize any right of revolution, the Declaration of Independence does. In explaining why they felt it necessary to revolt, the Founding Fathers declared: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” The Declaration is a hallowed document in American tradition, and is rightly revered for its place in American history. However, it is not a part of the Constitution, or even a part of American law. So if you do something excessively foolish, like storming the Capitol, don’t go thinking that your citation of this meme is going to cut any ice with the federal judge deciding whether you should go to prison.
The thing to remember is to treat information you see on the Internet like you would if someone just said something to you in person. If it sounds too good to be true, or if it sounds like they are just repeating something they don’t actually know anything about, then you’re probably better off not relying on it. The Internet, like fire, is a good servant but a bad master.
A version of this article was published in the December 2, 2021 edition of The Madill Record, and it is republished here by permission.