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Your Facebook Status—“Served�
How the legal landscape has shifted â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and continues to shift â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in the age of Facebook, 7ZLWWHU DQG <RX7XEH WR DOORZ VHUYLFH YLD VRFLDO PHGLD LV D VWXG\ LQ WKH ODZÂśV 6LV\SKHDQ struggle to keep pace with technology. In order to better understand both how traditional notions of service of process have expanded to encompass emerging technologies like ,Q PDQ\ ZD\V KHU GLVWUXVW RI WKH social media, as well as what this paradigm shift in communications may mean for the reliability of a social networking future, one must examine the historical shift page echoes the early mistrust in courtsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; approach to technology where service is concerned and the impact that social that many American courts have media are having on society in general and voiced regarding evidence from the legal system in particular. In addition, to fully appreciate the potentially transforonline sources. mative effect of social media as a form of substituted service, one must analyze the evolution of its reception in courts around the world, from early efforts in Australia in 2008 to its endorsement by the High Court in the United Kingdom in 2012, and some acceptance in the United States. The popularity and sheer pervasiveness of social media make sites such as Facebook and Twitter viable channels for service of process.4 <HW E\ WKH VDPH WRNHQ FHUWDLQ FKDUDFWHULVWLFV of social networking sites raise concerns. For example, is the person who created the social QHWZRUNLQJ SURÂżOH DFWXDOO\ WKH VDPH LQGLYLGXDO WR ZKRP VHUYLFH LV VRXJKW" &DQ WLPHO\ QRWLFH be ensured if the user in question makes only sporadic visits? As this article will discuss, these are valid concerns, but ones that courts can certainly address. Ultimately, social media SODWIRUPV RIIHU DQ HIÂżFLHQW FRVW HIIHFWLYH PHDQV RI SHUIHFWLQJ VXEVWLWXWHG VHUYLFH RQ RWKHUZLVH elusive defendants. As judicial comfort levels with emerging technologies rise, the popularity of court-sanctioned use of social media as a form of substituted service should rise as well.
MODERN TECHNOLOGY AND EVOLVING NOTIONS OF SERVICE OF PROCESS
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32164-rcm_2-2 Sheet No. 8 Side B
V QRYHO D FRQFHSW DV VHUYLFH RI SURFHVV YLD VRFLDO PHGLD SODWIRUPV PD\ VHHP DW ÂżUVW blush, it actually represents a logical next step in the path along which traditional notions of service and jurisdiction have evolved. In 1808, Lord Ellenborough questioned the validity of effecting service â&#x20AC;&#x153;upon proof of mailing a summons at the court door.â&#x20AC;?5 Twohundred years later, in an era of search engines and smartphones, a court in Australia has upheld the validity of serving a defendant via Facebook.6 In the United States, our notion of service has followed a path that, in many ways, mirrors the expansion of our country and efforts to reconcile the due process interests in need of protection with the pragmatism born of our embrace of technology and our acknowledgment of that technologyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s importance to economic growth.
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4. Facebook reports having 845 million users as of the end of December 2011, with 483 million of them using the site on at least a daily basis. Facebook, Inc., Facebook Fact Sheet, http://newsroom.fb.com/ content/default.aspx?NewsAreaID=22 (visited Apr. 9, 2012). Twitter, meanwhile, reports having 140 million active users and processing more than 340 million Tweets daily. Twitter, Inc., Shutting down spammers, TWITTER BLOG , April 5, 2012, http://blog.twitter.com/2012/04/shutting-down-spammers.html (visited Apr. 9, 2012). 5. Buchanan v. Rucker, 103 Eng. Rep. 546 (1808). 6. MKM Capital Property Ltd. v Corbo & Poyser, (12 Dec. 2008) No. SC 608 of 2008 (Austl., ACT Sup. Ct.).
VOLUME 2, I SSUE 2
7/3/12 7:56 AM