Recently one of the topics that bloggers have been concentrating their efforts (and in some cases wasting their breath) on has been the issue of privacy and free speech on the Internet. These sometimes quite lively discussions have been centred around social media and networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Over the last two years there have been a number of cases involving evidence that authorities gained by tracking and searching social networking sites. The most shocking story has to be one involving a student at Fisher College who was “expelled for comments he posted on the student networking website Facebook”. Check out the full story here.

As it transpires the student, Cameron Walker, was expelled for his online critique of a campus security officer on Facebook. A spokesperson at Facebook says that this marked the first time a college has expelled a student because of remarks made on the site - this little incident happened all the way back in 2005.

Since then cases that involve students who have been expelled or even investigated by the CIA for posting comments like “We should all pitch in a dollar each then hire an assassin to kill the president and replace him with a monkey” on MySpace have increased. Here are just some examples:

• In November 2005, Emory University officials cited members of the Facebook group "Dobbs 2nd Alcoholics," referring to the second floor of a campus residence hall, for conduct code violations. A similar drinking group, "Woodruff=Wasted," was also investigated. The group's club members only discussed "having fun in Woodruff" no photos of students were ever posted on Facebook.
• In November 2006, Two Louisiana State swimmers were kicked off the team for criticising their coaches on Facebook.
• In February 2007, Oxford police were directed to the Facebook profile of a Miami University student because it showed the police sketch of a suspect in the rape of another Miami University student as the account owner's personal picture. The police arrested the student and charged him with inducing panic.
• Also in February 2007, 11 students at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon, Ontario were suspended after posting comments about their principal on Facebook.

You can check out the full stories of these incidents and others here, here and here.

Most of the outrage in these cases has to do with the fact that there seems to be close monitoring of students accounts on

social media sites

by school, colleges and the police. This raises a number of questions, like “how far does my right to freedom of speech extend online?”. What most users of sites like Facebook and MySpace don’t realise is that posting a comment is akin to publishing it and making it public.
The issue of invasion of privacy by schools, colleges and police becomes a factor here and some students are responding to this monitoring by submitting “red herring" party listings. In one case at George Washington University, students advertised their party and were raided by campus police. The police found only cake, no alcohol, and later claimed the dorm raid had been triggered by a noise complaint.

This monitoring of individual accounts is becoming a lucrative business too. A company called Razorcom offers a paid service called MySpaceWatch that allows parents and other organisations track the activity of users. And fast thinking bloggers are setting up sites like MyCrimeSpace to document investigations that have centred on the social media network.

I’m not here to make judgments on whether this type of monitoring is a good or bad thing. I just want to make sure people realise that with the advent and rapid growth of Web 2.0 there needs to be some serious thinking about how Privacy and Freedom of Speech laws are going to be applied to the Internet. In the meantime be careful about what you post up there…you never know who might be tracking.

Oh and since this post is all about Freedom of Speech, I want lots of comments on this one…

For more on this check out this Wikipedia post.