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Famous For Fifteen People: Is Everyone a 'Facebook Celebrity'?
2/11/2012

An unsigned reader writes "In the stanford-binet test Law Review Online, authors Frankel, Brookover & Satterfield discuss an ongoing lawsuit against Facebook where plaintiffs claimed the social network's 'Sponsored Stories,' displaying advertisements on Facebook including 'the names and picture show of users who have "Liked" a product,' violated the law. Facebook responded by asserting that '(1) Plaintiffs are "public figures" to their friends, and (2) "expressions of customer opinion" are routinely newsworthy.' The authors discuss the substantial impact this case might have on online privacy going forward: 'The implications are eloquent and potentially far-reaching. The notion that every person is famous to his or her "friends" would effectively convert recognizable figures within any hamlet or sphere, however small, into individuals whose lives may be fair game for the ever-expanding (social) media. If courts are willing to find that nontraditional subjects (such as Facebook users) are public figures in novel contexts (such as social media websites), First enhancement and newsworthiness protections likely will become more vigorous as discrete privacy rights weaken. Warren and Brandeis's model of privacy rights, intended to prevent media consideration to all but the most public figures, will have little form to all but the most private individuals.'"

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