Just because you can legally say something, doesn't mean you should — or that it is professionally responsible to do so. As SBS presenter Scott McIntyre discovered when he was sacked for his controversial tweets about Anzac Day, the internet can sometimes be a treacherous place to test the boundaries of 'acceptable' free speech.
McIntyre learned this lesson the hard way, and he is hardly the first to do so. Remember Justine Sacco — the former PR representative who made the ill-advised decision one bright day back in December to tweet an out-of-context joke to her 170 followers, and then shut down her phone for a flight to Africa?
For 11 long, defenceless hours, the world got to stew over the following 12 words: 'Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!'
As I said: ill advised. When she landed, she opened her phone to a cacophony of alerts, including urgent messages from friends and a call letting her know she was the #1 worldwide trend on Twitter under the hashtag, #HasJustineLandedYet. Oh, and she, too, was fired.
Was she responsible for the demise of her professional life? Not solely. Had the tweet stayed within the realm of her 170 followers, one of her friends probably would have pointed out how it could be perceived, and she would have deleted it without anyone being the wiser.
No, Sacco owes her status as an example of social media faux pas to the thousands of people who re-posted and shared her tweet with the world — across every possible social media platform — all in a few short hours.
McIntyre and Sacco are not alone. There are countless stories of split-second, foolish social media decisions that led to public shaming, viral criticism and job loss. From people tweeting about how much they hate their jobs or updating their status on Facebook to give away company secrets, to those who actually didn't realise that everyone could see that picture, the internet is rife with social media carelessness.
There is one thing that many of the stories above have in common: these people's status updates and unfortunate tweets were shared far, far beyond their own personal range of influence.
That's what happens these days. Sadly, there are people out there who relish and even make money off of other people's misery. Users with thousands of followers will share something intended for the context of a few friends, and it