Tweetless Foo

As the hapless staff member of President Noynoy Aquino, Mai Mislang, now knows, tweeting personal impressions about her job can land her in hot water. Or, more accurately, on the front pages of the major dailies, where she even dwarfed news about the Supreme Court. Commenting that the "wine sucks" over where she was (an official function in Vietnam, the host country for the ASEAN summit) certainly didn't create favourable impressions of her. As part of the communications entourage of the President, she's presumably bestowed with the task of preserving the line between what can be shared with the public, and what should not. 

Notwithstanding this lapse, Ms. Mislang must have created very strong ties, as her immediate boss, Secretary Ricky Carandang, has defended her and declared the issue as now a 'closed book.' Ms. Mislang's episode underscores, though, how tricky it is to navigate personal life from public persona. What areas of our web lives can we rely on to be safe from the prying eyes of the government, the press, or our employers? Or should we just simply stop making parts of our lives available to our group of friends, fans, and in the case of tweeting, followers?

I worry about this, especially in the context of two Facebook episodes. The first is the complaint against lawyer Argee Guevarra, whose incendiary posts against cosmetic surgery maven Vicky Belo has resulted in a complaint for conduct unbecoming a lawyer. To gather evidence, the version of Argee is that a not-so-loyal 'friend' asked to be admitted into his private circle, and started downloading and printing screen shots once Argee accepted. Those print-outs are now attached as exhibits to submissions filed in court.

The second is the on-going contempt case against the UP Law professors over the plagiarism issue, some of whom are on Facebook. I worry about them, since their more critical posts could be twisted, by someone with a mind to, to be additional evidence of their "contemptuous" attitude towards the Supreme Court justices. This perilous proceeding is enough for me to be a wee bit paranoid about face-booking, forcing me to clamp down on my more vicious thoughts. As the pundits as well as the academe have said, the whole contempt contretemps creates a chilling effect. And I certainly feel the chill.

I remember vaguely the case of a judge who found out the hard way that it was not kosher for her to post pictures of her in a bikini. For conduct unbecoming of a member of the judicial branch, she was sanctioned by a Supreme Court not pleased about the fleshly exposure.

My view on that was, as it is in all of the scenarios above, private posts shouldn't be counted against the poster. There's an expectation of privacy, although through error or intent, the site may be accessible to a great many people. It's a form of sharing among friends, the same way we confide secrets to friends, or unburden our sorrows. Some people are just more comfortable having a wider circle of confidantes.

I'm sure the judge worked hard throughout her career to get where she was. Why do we expect her to give up her sexy side? As Secretary Carandang disclosed, Ms. Mislang is a valuable member of the President's staff. But she now has to give up her more discriminating tastes, and can no longer complain in the virtual world about how she finds Vietnamese men as not hot enough.

But perhaps the world isn't with me on this one. There are now warnings to kids about their posts, as their schools can use those to block admission. Prospective job applicants are warned not to be too racy, as they can get themselves disqualified on that basis. I've actually searched the web for the credentials of professionals I dealt with, especially when encountering them for the first time. If something juicy pops up, it just makes life more exciting, doesn't it? 

Meanwhile, Ms. Mislang's misdemeanour just reinforces my conclusion that it may not be a good idea to open a Twitter account. My Facebook posts are weird enough. No need to compound it with witless tweets.