I’ve posted several blogs recently about the impact and implications of modern technology for neutrals, such as the judiciary’s use of sophisticated Information Technology (IT) and internet sources in its decisions, and the increasing use and questionable reliability of internet-based primary sources. Now, I turn to social media.
I or my firm is a member of various social media: the ubiquitous Facebook; the quick & dirty Twitter; profile-building (I hope!) Blogger; and the imminently useful and informative LinkedIn. When signing up with LinkedIn, it automatically searched my email for contacts already on LinkeIn, and offered to extend an invitation to “connect” with the email “contacts.” I am a lawyer and a labor neutral, and my contacts not surprisingly included a number of labor and management representatives, and also lawyers from a number of different walks. Moreover, once on LinkedIn, I signed up to follow a variety of interest groups, some members of which—presumably those interested in my Twitter and/or Blogger postings—have since “connected” with or begun to "follow" me.... Have I committed ethics violations???
