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Blacked out Twitter image from my post last week

Netiquette. I seriously hate that word. BUT an issue of internet-based-etiquette (blogger etiquette, specifically) recently came to my attention, and I’m interested in others’ practices and thoughts.

As a blogger, I often analyze content from Facebook and Twitter. In doing so, I usually post images of actual tweets, comments, and status updates. These are forms of data, and are useful in delineating the public tenor with regard to a particular issue, the arguments on opposing sides of a debate, and the ‘voice’ with which people articulate their relevant thoughts and sentiments.

As a common practice, I black out all identifying information when reposting this content. Last week, I posted some tweets with the names and images redacted. A reader commented on my post to ask why I did so, given that the tweets were public. We had a quick discussion, but, as I mentioned in that discussion, this issue deserves independent treatment.

My rationale for blacking out names/handles/pictures, even when accounts and content are public, is that it is, in my opinion, the respectful thing to do. Privacy is confusing on the Internet, and I doubt those people intended for their content to reappear on my blog post. That is, just because something is public doesn’t mean others should publicize it. As a general rule, I rely on the ethic of “Don’t be a jerk.” To restate it positively, I believe in collective care and stewardship, in which we all act with each other’s best interest in mind.

To be sure, one might argue that I am doing a disservice by using content without giving name credit. This is a valid point. In some cases, people are not only aware that their content is public, but this publicity is intentional.  That I use their ideas without proper citation is reasonable cause for people to get pretty cheezed off. Taken to its logical extreme, I could be accused of intellectual property violation. Taken at the level of my own personal ethics, idea use without citation is kind of a jerk move.

The trouble is that unless a person explicitly states otherwise—either publicly or through personal communication—that they wish for their name to appear or not appear, I have no way of knowing their intention. If I were a journalist for a well-funded publication, with all of the concomitant resources (i.e., time, money, and assistants), I could seek out individual content producers and ask their preference. This is a relatively laborious process, though, and of course people may or may not respond to direct inquires. As a safe short cut, I err on the side of privacy protection. The stakes are simply not even. To fail to give name credit is at worst a neutral outcome for the content creator. To attribute an idea to someone who did not realize their voice would spread so far, could potentially have dire consequences.

This is my deeply imperfect rationale. I’m interested in what others do, and their reasoning behind it.

 

Follow Jenny on Twitter (where she won’t reveal your true identity, unless you ask her to): @Jenny_L_Davis