Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology
Abstract
The world we live in today has changed infinitely since the inception of our Constitution and early legal doctrine. Our Founding Fathers could never have predicted that we would one day live in a world where anyone living in any corner of the globe could garner millions of followers. Whether someone finds him or herself to be particularly proficient in writing Harry Potter fan fiction or to be the best creator of memes with an American Girl Doll focus, ordinary citizens could find themselves suddenly jolted out of quiet anonymity by one unexpectedly viral post. Despite years of Instagram micro-fame, courts have struggled to reshape laws to include concrete rules for how best to regard these micro-celebrities when it comes to privacy, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims. This article will go through the history and development of these three different areas of tort law in which a plaintiff’s public figure status is a dispositive factor in determining their ability to recover and will draw conclusions about potential solutions to how existing precedent may evolve in the future and become applicable for the time of mass social media consumption that the world exists in today.
Recommended Citation
Elizabeth McMullen,
A How-To Guide for When Your Favorite Meme Account Is Defamed: Involuntary Public Figures in Defamation, Privacy, and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Law,
32
Cath. U. J. L. & Tech
159
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.edu/jlt/vol32/iss2/8
Included in
Common Law Commons, Communications Law Commons, Courts Commons, First Amendment Commons, Internet Law Commons, Other Law Commons, Privacy Law Commons, Science and Technology Law Commons, Torts Commons