The full breakdown of Judge Mabel's social media faux pas
Judge Mabel Jansen placed herself directly in the path of a possible
social media tornado and social media expert -
Verlie Oosthuizen shed some light on the matter.
Subsequently she sent direct messages to Schutte via the Facebook Messenger application which reinforced her various viewpoints and expanded upon them. There is no indication from either party that Schutte replied to these direct messages. It is clear that the Judge was an active social media user with a variety of accounts across various platforms.
Whilst the initial
response from the Judge regarding this issue was that she had made the remarks
confidentially, it is clear that initially the comments were made on a public
forum.
Having had sight of the posts
contained in screen shots provided by Schutte, it seems that they were not
"Friends" in either the social media or traditional sense of the
word. It is unlikely that Jansen would be able to argue an expectation of
privacy regarding her initial posts when Schutte has over 1600 followers /
Friends on Facebook and her page is accessible to the public.
Here are some of the screenshots:
Judge Mabel Jansen responded on twitter saying:
What I stated confidentially to somebody in a position to help has been taken completely out of context and referred to specific court cases
— Mabel Jansen (@mabel_jansen) May 8, 2016
Social media expert Verlie Oosthyizen from Shepstone & Wylie Social Media Law Department paid us a visit to enlighten us on the matter, and to educate us on Social Media Law:
Has anyone ever screen grabbed your private conversation that got you in trouble?