Your Twitter history can haunt you

Crude but a powerful metaphor that captures just how destructive social media can be:

"With twitter, once its out there & you try to remove tweets, it's like trying to taking piss out of a swimming pool."

There's just no hiding. The social analytics company Topsy now offers the entire history of public tweets on Twitter. Even deleting a tweet won't cover your back. If someone retweets the offending or questioned tweet it has been cast in concrete. As an Irish politician found out. Find out all about that here.

Dominic Grieve publishes advisory notes to help prevent social media users committing contempt of court

Twitter and other social media users have been warned that by commenting on court cases online they could be inadvertently be breaking the law. Dominc Grieve, the Government's chief legal adviser has issued previously unpublished advisory notes to help prevent social media users committing a contempt of court.

Read more here. Mr Justice Tugendhat spoke and made law here.

Ruth Patteron, The Communications Act 2003 and the New Labour Terror Law

Mick Fealty covers (here) the legal analysis from Newton Emerson who said, writing in the Irish News, that Blair-era terror laws make prosecution against Ruth Patterson-type communications that bit easier.

Ruth Patteron was arrested and then charged on the grounds of making a 'grossly offensive communication' as per the Communications Act 2003 on Facebook. She will appear in court on August 22 2013 and has said that she will plead 'not guilty'.