Much has been made of social media’s explosive growth the past 3-4 years, from quirky technology used solely by the under-20 crowd to ubiquitous medium that is increasingly dominating communication – even at the corporate level. Just how quickly has social media become a force to be reckoned with? Facebook is reportedly worth more than $10 billion, and CEO Mark Zuckerburg is one of the most sought after meetings around. The mighty FTC focused its ire on 4-year-old Twitter for allegedly failing to secure consumer information before settling with the social media darling, a remarkable development considering the fact that Twitter did not exist until 2006. Not wanting to be outdone, the Library of Congress announced plans to archive every tweet ever created. Even Gartner Group joined the fray, proclaiming that social media would become the communication method of choice for 20% of businesses by 2014.
Which brings us to eDiscovery. Discovery has long been the province of figuring out who knew and said what, to whom, when; in this context, social media is a treasure trove of ESI that makes email look like child’s play. As we have discussed early and often, social media is unique among all other forms of communication in at least 5 ways, all of which make it a plaintiff lawyer’s dream and a complexity for any litigant:
1. Social media’s speed and breadth amplify communication velocity – which can be good when the content being communicated is appropriate and important, and bad (in some cases very bad) when the content is misleading, inaccurate, proprietary or fraudulent
2. Social media is not a secure form of communication; Facebook and Twitter accounts can be co-opted or faked, which can lead to all sorts of unintended consequences (just ask Tony LaRussa)
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Source: INFOcus
By: Craig Carpenter
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