The “Weaponing” of Social Media by Law Enforcement

The “Weaponing” of Social Media by Law Enforcement:  It is well established that a private citizen has a First Amendment right to videotape public officials, including, but not limited to, police officers while performing their duties in any public place.  (e.g., see Gericke v. Begin (1st Cir. 2014) 753 F.3rd 1; Glik v. Cunniffe (1st Cir. 2011) 655 F.3rd 78, 82-84.)  This is sometimes done at the scene of a public demonstration or protest as an intimidation tactic in an attempt to prevent officers from performing their duties, capitalizing on the officer’s knowledge that the resulting video will later be publicly posted on one or more of the available social media sites, one of the more popular being YouTube.  In response, a new tactic has been developed by some inventive law enforcement officers, not to prevent the recording of their actions, but rather to prevent the resulting videos from going viral.  When the protesters’ cellphone cameras come out, an officer might simply pull out his or her own cellphone, playing as loudly as possible any copyrighted music recording such as one by the ....