New bill may hinder abuse on social sites

A bill cosponsored by two state representatives will, if passed, provide an avenue to pursue charges against individuals who hijack a Facebook account or otherwise misrepresent another person through social media.

Currently, no legislation exists in South Carolina to address this type of identity fraud.

South Carolina representatives Bill Taylor and Tom Young, responding to an increased incidence of social media fraud, had legislation drafted to address the fraudulent use of Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, as well as caller ID.

"There wasn't a statute that that type of activity would fall under so there wasn't a way to prosecute it," said Young. "We had heard from other people in other parts of the state through other representatives that had similar types of problems, and their solicitor's offices weren't able to prosecute."

The bill, if passed into law, would make it a criminal offense to use a telecommunications service, IP-enabled voice service, social media service or other means to transmit or post misleading or inaccurate caller ID or social media information "with the intent to harass, defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain anything of value from another person" or "deceive the recipient of the identity of the person."

Violators of the first provision would be fined no more than $1,000 or imprisoned for not more than three years, and violators of the second provision would be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned for not more than 30 days, according to the current language of the bill.

A person found guilty of either provision would be guilty of a misdemeanor.

"Whether it be Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, that is damage in many ways to somebody's reputation, if you take that and put their name on something that they would not approve of and misrepresent them," said Taylor. "What is precious to all of us is our reputation. If that is damaged or ruined, it's hard to put that all back together, so the people that do that have to have penalties that they face."

In January 2010, a 20-year-old USC Aiken student and Aiken County Republican party volunteer Colen Lindell admitted to creating a fake Facebook account impersonating the party's vice chairman, David Lobb.

The Facebook page included Lobb's photo and racial slurs made to look as if Lobb had posted them.

Young, Taylor and Solicitor Strom Thurmond Jr. said that the social media fraud bill is intended to address situations like Lobb's.

"Our posture back in January 2010 was that this is a very serious offense, but there was no statute," said Thurmond. "There is currently no redress under state law."

Laws on the books related to identity theft were not applicable to the particular situation.

Identity fraud includes an element of unlawfully appropriating financial resources, as do laws related to computer crimes.

Harassment or "stalking," under state law, involves a pattern of repeated intrusion, and unlawful communication involves a threat and repeated contact.

Slander and libel were held unconstitutional in federal court, Thurmond said.

Defamation related to Lobb's case; however, defamation is a civil action and not a criminal offense.

"With the proliferation of computers and the increased use of the Internet, it will bring a 21st century took to law enforcement, should this law pass," Thurmond said.

The bill may not pass, and may not come up for consideration in a House subcommittee until next spring, as the state House is in the middle of a two-year session.

About 1,000 bills are filed each year, Taylor said.

The representatives said they are working on many issues that may be considered "bigger" or more pressing than the social media bill, and while the bill may not be at the forefront of what they are doing, it is still important.

"It's not such a little thing if you are the victim of it," Taylor said.