Florida National University Social Networking and First Amendment Analysis

For this assignment you must write a 2-3 page paper that discusses the following issues: (a) an analysis of the First Amendment and how it applies to this particular case, (b) an analysis of the Fourth Amendment and how it applies to this particular case, (c) an analysis of the ethical responsibilities of FaceKonnect and whether they acted ethically under these circumstances, and (d) an analysis of what is the likely outcome under this set of facts.

You work for FaceKonnect, a social networking company that allows users to connect with other individuals based on their location and employment. In order to sign up with FaceKonnect, individuals must create a profile with personal information regarding their name, age, gender, geographical location, job description, and hobbies. Once enrolled, users are also allowed to express their opinions about whatever they like or dislike on their profile, they can add “Konnections” (friends), and create groups. FaceKonnect is a big advocate for the First Amendment and seldom blocks users from posting comments. You are in charge of the Human Resources Department at FaceKonnect and have the following situation brought to your attention:

Stephanie has a FaceKonnect online profile where she has expressed some controversial ideas. In one post, Stephanie has encouraged her “Konnections” to go out and commit human sacrifices in the name of Satan, alleging that that is the only way to fix the vast problems of the world. She has other controversial posts where she speaks of her personal love for Satan and what people should do to make him happy. Stephanie also posted some disturbing pornographic images along with that post. FaceKonnect failed to do anything about Stephanie’s posts, as it overlooked them. The spouse of a woman that was abused and murdered by Peter, a Konnection of Stephanie’s who became so engulfed in Stephanie’s post that he began to worship her and felt that she was a messenger that had to be listened to, filed a civil suit against both Stephanie and FaceKonnect. In addition, the spouse wants both Stephanie and FaceKonnect to face criminal charges for the incident. The government has further issued a subpoena to FaceKonnect requesting that FaceKonnect provide the government with all of the personal information of all of its users in order to conduct a thorough investigation of FaceKonnect.