Clarity needed on privacy in social media posts – Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

The Supreme Judicial Court is set to decide this fall when social media users have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their posts. The court will consider the case of Commonwealth v. Carrasquillo, in which the defendant was convicted of gun crimes after he posted a video of himself with a weapon to Snapchat. Snapchat is similar to Facebook in that users decide whether to approve requests from other users to join their networks, although Snapchat users tend not to use their real names on their accounts. Snapchat is also different because its posts have a short shelf life, disappearing shortly after they are viewed. That contributes to a sense that material on Snapchat is impermanent. The post in the case at issue was viewable only by the defendant’s friends, but at some point he accepted a friend request from an undercover police officer, who recognized the defendant from his beat in the neighborhood. After “friending” the defendant, the officer received a video on his Snapchat account of a person reaching into his pocket and pulling out a gun. The officer recognized the area in the video as one that the defendant frequented and sent police to the scene. They…
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