Takedown demands:
Setting criteria before the requests come
An ethics lesson
Takedown Demands: Setting Criteria before the requests come
by John Bowen
Description
When the requests come for your staff to take down materials already published either in print or online, what criteria will you use to make the decision – and why?
Students will examine the following questions:
• What are Takedown Demands?
• What some reasons for the requests?
• What legal and ethical principles might be involved?
• What criteria will you use to make your decision
• Should you develop written guidelines for the eventual decisions?
Objectives
• Students will read and examine two articles addressing takedown requests.
• Students will examine two possible takedown request scenarios and apply concepts from the reading.
• Students will draft a policy addressing what to do when a takedown request occurs.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1.C
Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed.
Length
150 minutes (three 50-minute classes)
Materials / resources
Takedown Demands
Responding to Takedown Demands
Lesson step-by-step
Day 1
1. Introduction — 5 minutes
What would you do if you edited an online news site and someone requested a story they were quoted in was removed? Would you comply with the request? Write down your decision.
2. Share introduction answers — 5 minutes
Ask students to share what they decided and state the rationale they used to make the decision.
3. Student discovery — 20 minutes
Have students go to Takedown Demands on JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee site and Responding to Takedown Demands on the SPLC’s site. This can be done at the beginning of class.
Have students take note on the articles on the handout in preparation for class discussion. This will ultimately lead to developing guidelines for your staff and ethics manuals.
4. Group discussion — 20 minutes
As a whole class, or in small groups, have students discuss the following questions:
• What are legal considerations for taking down coverage?
• What are ethical considerations for down coverage?
• Which arguments make the most sense for your student media?
• Which alternatives create the most logical solutions for your media?
• What types of requests might lead to information removal?
• Other thoughts as locally developed.
Day 2
1. Review — 7 minutes
Project the following:
–Please jot down three things you remember learning in the previous class.
Once students have written the three things, randomly call on several students asking them to share what they wrote.
3. Grouping — 2 minutes
Ask students to get in a group of 5. Teacher could number class off using numbers 1 through
4. Scenario 1 discussion — 20 minutes
Ask students to read the following situation. You can project it onto a screen:
A former student contacts your student media and says she has been told there are things in her past that will prevent her from being hired for a job in law enforcement in your town. She knows there is negative coverage about her being caught for cheating on AP tests and for alcohol use her junior year. Your student media reported both events. She argues that the coverage is keeping her from this job, and if allowed to remain, will block her from others. She wants the material removed.
Remind students they should use the principles raised in the readings, what would students do? Why?
Remind students they must find a conclusion, and they should list their reasoning. Groups will share their reasoning and decision with the class during the next class.
5. Scenario 2 discussion — 20 minutes
Ask students to read the following situation. You can project it onto a screen:
A varsity football player contacts your adviser and asks that an article about his removal from the football team for breaking team rules be taken down. He alleges that the article was incorrect, and because of that, will keep him from his university’s football program. What will you do?
Again, remind students they should use the principles raised in the readings, what would students do? Why?
Remind students they must find a conclusion, and they should list their reasoning. Groups will share their reasoning and decision with the class during the next class.
Day 3
1. Review — 5 minutes
Ask groups to review their decision and rationale from the previous class.
2. Group share and discussion — 15 minutes
Each team shares its conclusions and rationale.
3. Policy guideline formulation — 15 minutes
Each team will prepare guidelines for handling Takedown Demands to share with the other groups.
4. Discussion about the guideline — 15 minutes
As a class, students should reach a consensus on a guideline statement for their ethics and staff manuals.
Extra critical thinking exercise:
• What could happen if the “right to be forgotten” decision involving Google in the European Union (EU) allows individuals to delete information, videos or photographs about themselves from internet records, and thus prevent them from showing up on search engines became law in the US? The Guardian reports thousands of articles have disappeared because, under the decision, there could be classified “no longer relevant, inadequate, outdated or excessive.” Truth does not seem to be a factor. How would that change journalism in this country, and for the future?
The EU “right to be forgotten” ruling specifies that any information must be “irrelevant or outdated” but anti-censorship bodies have argued Google does not choose what appears in its results more than show what is freely available on the internet.
Read MoreResources for takedown demands
Resources for the guidelines:
• Responding to takedown demands
http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=111
• Responding to takedown demands
http://www.splc.org/pdf/takedowndemand.pdf
• Responding to takedown demands
http://studentpressblogs.org/nspa/responding-to-takedown-requests/
• 5 ways news organizations respond to ‘unpublishing requests
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/104414/5-ways-news-organizations-respond-to-unpublishing-requests/
• Post grapples with how to ‘unpublish’ and correct the record
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080604341.html
• The ethics of unpublishing
http://www.caj.ca/?p=1135
• If you must unpublish, here’s how to maintain credibility
http://www.poynter.org/author/kellymcbride/
See more for the complete package:
Evaluating legal demands
Evaluating ethical choices
Decision models
10 steps to a “Put Up” policy
Handling online comments
Takedown demands?
Possible takedown models
Possible takedown choices
Model A: Leave everything as is, if:
• The request is designed to retain image or avoid embarrassment
• No discernible evidence of factual or legal issue
• Value of not changing information for historical, reality reasons
• Publishing the truth, as best we can determine it
• Credibility of the student media is paramount
• Your mission is to be an accurate record of events and issues
Model B: Publish corrections, retractions or updates, if:
• The information is proven factually false or otherwise legally deficient as of the time it was published
• There is a need for transparency concerning source inaccuracy
• There is a need to provide context and perspective of published information
• The staff needs to clarify or update information
• The staff feels the situation is considered a gray area best solved by compromise
• The staff can write a follow-up story
Model C: Take down information, if
• One-time reasons, like fabrications, protection of sources exist
• Staffs need to correct something they determine, as best they can, harm to the persons identified outweighs all other factors
See more for the complete package:
Evaluating legal demands
Evaluating ethical choices
10 steps to a “Put Up” policy
Resources
Handling online comments
Takedown demands?
Read More
Legal considerations for responding to takedown demands
by Mark Goodman
When a student news organization receives a demand to remove content from its website, consider a handful of legal considerations as well journalistic and ethical ones.
The first question should always be, what’s the reason for the demand?
• Is it based on a claim the content in question was factually inaccurate and damaging to someone’s reputation (in other words, libelous)?
• Or is it based on the fact the content in question is embarrassing to someone and reveals information they would rather not have exposed (an invasion of privacy)?
• Or perhaps the claim is the material infringes on someone else’s copyright?
• Maybe the complaint is the person making the demand just doesn’t like the content – it’s offensive to them or conflicts with their perspective.
The last of these four common reasons for a takedown demand is the easiest to dispose of, at least from a legal perspective. A news organization never has an obligation to remove content simply because someone doesn’t like it. Unless the individual making the demand is alleging an identifiable person has suffered a personal injury as a result of the content, there typically is no risk of a legal claim to be concerned about.
If the claim is “you’ve infringed my copyright,” the demand should be taken seriously. Did the student news medium obtain permission to use the content before publication? Or is the use of the content what the law refers to as a “fair use?” (Generally, using a small part of a copyrighted work for news or commentary about the copyright owner of that work will be considered a fair use. For example, using an image from an album cover to illustrate a review of that album will always be considered a fair use.) Remember, the fact you didn’t intend to infringe a copyright or that you didn’t understand what copyright protected is not a defense. If your use represents a copyright infringement, your obligation is to take the work down. The Student Press Law Center has excellent resources available about fair use and copyright infringement. You can find them here: http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?maincat=6
Many takedown demands are the result of individuals believing their privacy has been invaded. Even if the content has been up for years, they may believe the fact they face consequences from it now (being asked about it by prospective employers, for example) is justification for demanding its removal from your website. The good news, legally, is if the content was not an unwarranted invasion of privacy at the time it was published, it can’t be one subsequently.
• For example, if your students accurately report a student was arrested and charged with vandalizing the school, that content is protected from an invasion of privacy claim. Accurate reporting about allegations of crime and other legal matters will almost never meet the requirements for an unwarranted invasion of privacy.
• But, if the information did constitute a legally actionable invasion of privacy at the time of publication, takedown is a necessary step. For more information in this area of the law, see: http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=29
Concerns about damage to reputation are one of the frequent justifications raised by those who demand content be taken down. Using the example above, a student arrested and charged with the crime of vandalizing school property may raise the fact he was subsequently found not guilty of the crime or perhaps even the charges were dropped.
• Again, if the information was accurate and not legally actionable at the time of publication, new facts won’t remove the legal protection for having published it in the first place.
• And if the complaint isn’t about inaccuracy but rather just about embarrassment, there is an easy defense: truth. The publication of factually accurate information at the time of publication can never be the basis of a successful libel suit.
• For more information about libel, see http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=27
One other important legal consideration when responding to a takedown demand, especially when the requested remedy is just to remove a part of a story or other content: you may be opening the door to potential lawsuits by others. Lawsuits for privacy invasion and libel must be filed within a set time frame after the content was first published (1-2 years in most states). This is called the statute of limitations. Most courts have concluded that the clock starts running on the date the content was first posted online, not when the people mentioned in the story first learned of it. *But if you materially edit a story that appears on online, that can start the statute of limitations clock all over again.
The best legal advice: only respond to takedown demands when you have a solid journalistic or legal reason for doing so. But when you have published legally unprotected content, you can lessen the likelihood of being sued or a significant damage award by removing the offending content from your website.
The Student Press Law Center offers a detailed analysis of responding to takedown demands. You can find that here: http://www.splc.org/pdf/takedowndemand.pdf
Mark Goodman is the Knight Chair of Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University and the former Executive Director of the Student Press Law Center.
See more for the complete package:
Evaluating ethical choices
Decision models
10 steps to a “Put Up” policy
Resources
Handling online comments
Takedown demands?
Read More
Takedown demands?
Here is a roadmap of choices, rationale
Because of a growing number of takedown demands, requests for removal of online articles, JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission offers guidelines to assist students and their advisers face these requests. Such requests typically come from sources, former staffers or citizens with concerns.
We agree with the Student Press Law Center’s Executive Director Frank LoMonte when he said the SPLC has shied away from telling people a ”right way” to handle takedown requests, leaving the decision to their editorial discretion.
“What we DO tell them is that they’re legally protected pretty much whatever decision they make,” LoMonte said. “Almost every newsroom has a variation of the simple rule that nothing will be taken down unless it’s proven factually false or otherwise legally deficient as of the time it was published.”
LoMonte said those creating takedown policies might “shackle themselves,” to the point they could not use discretion for that “one out-of-left-field moment …essential to deviate from policy.”
So, instead of policy, we offer this to help students make informed choices. In all situations, we recommend the SPLC’s existing work on the subject, and hope these guidelines will offer a roadmap if your students face takedown decisions. In addition, we also offers series of guideposts to evaluate information before it is posted: A Put Up policy that might prevent hard choices later.
Our guidelines look at legal demands, ethical considerations and possible reactions
Evaluating legal demands
Evaluating ethical choices
Decision models
10 steps to a “Put Up” policy
Resources
Handling online comments