I wonder how many people appreciate what happens when you post something on social media. Doing so is publishing that information. Yes, you can restrict the audience (in general terms) by carefully setting and managing your privacy settings. I read through a change in privacy policy recently tagged from Facebook and noticed one glaring change; photographs are now considered the property of Facebook when they are stored on Facebook (in a post or on your personal page).
I have long been concerned that someone would pull the rug out from under the various protections we as users (publishers) on social media have (perhaps inappropriately) enjoyed. A 1996 law that essentially holds publishers, social media system operators, Internet service providers, and portal providers (those who make internet cafe machines available) harmless for the content published on social media. My notion of the worst-case situation here is that everything ever posted (and not permanently deleted) would suddenly be exposed to a plethora of legal challenges from both law enforcement and civil opposition.
It now appears that the Whitehouse is going to test its ability to modify laws once again by altering those protections through Presidential action to modify “Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act”. Now that act may not have been aimed at protecting the true authors of memes and other posts; but, it has certainly protected the services (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and allowed the posting public to assert or state most anything one might imagine with little to no expectation of reprisal.Waking up one morning and learning that you need to be more circumspect in your posts is one thing, and frankly, I have no issue with this becoming the case; but, suddenly being liable (no coincidence in my choice of words here) for everything you have ever posted, is a very different can of worms and one we are likely to face very soon.
So, to my way of thinking, two threats to our long-standing practices on social media; one, photos we upload may get used in a manner not in keeping with our privacy settings and two, we may all suddenly be held accountable civilly and legally for all content we have posted over the years.