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Can Prisoners Use Facebook in Jail?
As the popularity of social media sites grows, the question of “Can prisoners use Facebook in jail?” has also grown. Some prisoners have taken issue with this, arguing that it is a violation of their First Amendment rights to maintain their own online social networks. Prison officials have countered that a third-party Facebook profile could be used to plan escapes and smuggle contraband. However, prison officials maintain that their social media activity poses a safety risk and that it is in the best interests of inmates to avoid such oversight.
TDCJ should allow inmates to maintain social media accounts
One issue raised by advocates is whether TDCJ should allow inmates to maintain a Facebook account while in prison. Some inmates have used their accounts to sell items, harass victims, and even continue criminal activity while in prison. To see also : How to Create a Poll on Facebook. But the new rule does not specify what it means to keep inmates off the internet. It could apply to prison artwork, internet use for other purposes, or cases of apparent wrongful convictions.
The new rule prohibits inmates from maintaining a Facebook or Tumblr account. TDCJ officials will contact the accounts of inmates who refuse to remove them. They can’t force inmates to delete their accounts unless they’ve agreed to comply with the agency’s rules. Critics have pointed out that this ban is an infringement of inmates’ rights to free speech.
Facebook does not allow third parties to maintain accounts
Prison officials in Arizona have suspended inmates’ Facebook accounts, which they consider a form of cruel punishment. The move to suspend accounts is in response to a challenge from the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The group posted letters from death row inmates to their Facebook accounts, which gave them a voice and a way to connect with the outside world. See the article : How to Avoid Running an Illegal Raffle on Facebook. While it is against Facebook’s terms of service to prohibit third-party maintenance of inmate accounts, the practice is legal in most circumstances. The US District Court in Arizona also found that Facebook is free to suspend an inmate’s account without any justification.
Facebook said it has been removing inmate profiles when it determines that inmates are breaking its community standards. But the company is still not transparent enough to say whether it’s keeping these accounts active. The company has cooperated with state and federal prisons for four years but does not report on its prison cooperation in its annual transparency report. As a result, prisons have remained suspicious of the company’s efforts to censor inmate speech.
Prison officials are not in business of enforcing its ToS
Recently, a corrections sergeant was fired for having a Facebook friend in prison. Prison officials said he had violated a prison policy prohibiting guards and convicts from fraternizing. The sergeant argued the online friend was a high school acquaintance. On the same subject : How to Delete Facebook Account Permanently. Fraternization in prisons is prohibited, according to Texas law. But after an internal investigation, the sergeant was reinstated, and other prison staff members also had the same online friend. Officials no longer consider this kind of friendship as a violation of the fraternization ban.
The documents revealed that the censorship guidelines for Facebook were inconsistent, with the difference being that Higgins’ incitement to violence passed muster as it targeted a specific subgroup of Muslims, while Delgado’s post was deleted for attacking whites in general. Moreover, Facebook’s censorship guidelines don’t include a section on censorship that explicitly prohibits posts that violate ToS.
Unmonitored social media activity is a threat to people’s safety
Recent research shows that a number of prisons are allowing their inmates to use social media. Prisons are also letting their inmates use mobile phones, some of which were obtained illegally. The Prison Service has struggled to deal with the growing social media use in prisons, as it does not have the technology or staff to monitor the activity of inmates. However, Scotland has been testing ways to block individual handsets to prevent inmates from accessing the Internet.
The EFF has obtained documents from South Carolina prisons in which a group of inmates used an Apple device to access Twitter. While inmates can use social media with help from outsiders, efforts to censor their use of the internet would limit the freedoms of those who are free. Recently, a prisoner’s video posting a rap song against a grimy prison cell went viral, gaining over 1.2 million views on a hip hop website and 866,000 on YouTube.
