Social Networking service
A social networking service or social networking site is an interactive web-based service that allows the creation and sharing of user profiles, digital peer-to-peer networks, and other content. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines a social networking site as "a website designed to enable users to interact with each other in virtual space".
People who use social networking services can connect with friends or people they meet there through private messages, status updates, photo tagging, and more. They can also share such information as status updates on online communities. Sometimes people refer to these sites as microblogging sites because of their similarity with the concept of blogging on Twitter. Social networks also are one aspect within Internet culture involving online communities based around specific interests.
The variety and flexibility of social networking services makes them particularly useful for information dissemination. For example, it is much easier to track specific medical symptoms via social networking services than by following newspaper coverage of medical studies. In the so-called Arab Spring, Facebook was used by activists to organize protests and communicate with one another. In 2011, it was reported that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were utilizing social media to spread awareness about controversial or important issues to raise their public profile and reach more people with their message. Some companies provide services that allow organizations or individuals to draw attention to issues that they find particularly important. For example, the Sierra Club created a Facebook page to raise awareness about climate change.
Social networking sites may play a role in job hunting, allowing prospective employees and employers to assess each other through online exchanges.
There is no universally accepted definition of social networking services from a legal perspective. From the perspective of law, they are often considered to be an extension of social media websites. However, scholars have argued that they need to be understood as their own distinct business model. In addition, users should be able to distinguish between social networking services and other platforms for social interaction such as online forums or blogs. This is because some laws treat these services differently to other platforms. For example, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act treats social networking services as “information location tools” that are protected by its anti-circumvention provision. According to this provision, it is illegal for consumers to “modify, adapt, translate, or reverse engineer a work protected by [this]… protection.”
Although social networking services are often classified as one (or more) of the following types of media: electronic communication; internet, and internet-based communication; mobile telephony service; an internet-enabled application; information service; an online directory; online community which enables users to communicate with each other via conversation and sharing of user profile/profile pictures in their profile page or on social networking sites. The distinction between them is important to the analysis of this legal issue. The "user generated content" that users contribute to social networking websites also adds to the complexity of defining the media. However, it is certain that all types of social networks must be analyzed for copyright protection.
The classification of social networking sites has become a matter for dispute among scholars and lawyers as new types and features are developed by different companies and services. For instance, some classify “Facebook’s” News Feed as a general internet service, but others treat it as an internet-based communication service because it allows users to create and update their own personal profiles or other profile pages, and communicate with other users via status updates (posts). At the same time, while all types of social networking sites might have similar advertisements and promotional benefits, the result is a wide variety of services that differ from each other in terms of their service scope, content, functions and features.
Social networking sites which provide electronic communication may be subject to direct regulation by some states. For example, Arkansas passed a law in 2005 requiring that Internet providers “have the ability to block offensive material.” In the United States, there also exists a 1992 federal law that permits states to apply for electronic communications privacy protections. This is still not the case in many countries such as China where social media and internet are heavily censored.
The reason why social networking services are not classified as electronic communication is because they are different from conventional telephone services and messaging services, which have been classified as telecommunication services. In this sense, they differ from conventional electronic commerce platforms such as e-commerce platforms, email platforms, online shopping websites, blogging platforms etc., which have been classified as information service or advertising service since 1997 when the U.S. Copyright Office issued a rule of practice for classification according to how material is used and received by consumers.
Moreover, social networking services differ from conventional advertising services because users of social networking services do not receive any remuneration in exchange for the content they provide. For example, users of Twitter are not paid to post their tweets, and users of Facebook are not paid to update the information in their profiles. Moreover, a user’s ability to make modifications and updates is limited by the specific design of a network platform. In this sense, social networking sites are similar to conventional online shopping websites or online news websites; because there is no direct connection between producers and consumers (users), they cannot be classified as electronic commerce platforms.
According to U.S. law, social networking sites that provide music downloads are not classified as internet-based communication services, but rather as non-interactive computer services or information services. This classification also depends on how the service is designed and used. Whether a social networking site is classified as an internet-based communication service or a non-interactive computer service depends on how it is designed by the operator and how users actually use it.
One of the main reasons that social networking sites have not been classified as information services is that they do not collect and store information about users’ specific activities such as a website user’s personal communication data, Web logs or online records. According to U.S. law, social networking sites are classified as non-interactive computer services or internet-based communication services only if they provide access to materials which are “original in nature” i.e. “derivative works are also considered derivative work under US copyright law and we must analyze the nature of these works when determining whether they possess originality.
For example, it is evident from the U.S.
Conclusion, the classification of social networking sites as information services or non-interactive computer services is only determined by the design of a network platform, and by how users actually use such service.
Many scholars and legal practitioners have argued that many social networking sites are information services because they provide access through a network to multiple users with personal profiles whose content created and published by the users themselves. However, this argument does not apply to all social networking sites. For example, some scholars claim that Facebook is not an information service because it collects information about your online activities via cookies and keeps track of your friends who are close to you in order to recommend to you third-party commercial products.