It's no secret by now that our expanding use of social media networks has created a perilous and evolving landscape for businesses, institutions and regular folks. What's surprising is the myriad ways that online networks create concerns and conflicts that never existed just a few years ago. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes "the age of privacy is over" and there should be no distinction between a person's professional and private lives, the working world clearly has not and may never reach that degree of comfort.

Just last week the Dallas Morning News detailed how the Lewisville school district is considering a new policy that would forbid teachers and other school district workers from criticizing the district or even identifying themselves as employees of the district in their profiles and postings on social media sites. The paper also notes that the Texas Association of School Boards is drafting new policy language that addresses how employees should use social networking sites, even on their own time and on their own computers.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, 27 states now have some form of regulations to limit so-called SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) retaliations against consumers who post negative comments online. Federal legislation, currently in the House Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, would all an individual who thinks he is being bullied by litigation for speaking out or petitioning on a public matter to seek to have the lawsuit dismissed. Finally, a report by Arezow Doost of KTVT/CBS 11 highlighted the growing trend in which businesses are using the legal system to fight negative reviews and comments on social networking sites. The broadcast notes the efforts of a Plano eye surgeon to uncover the source of a website posting critical of his services. Interviewed in the news report about this growing area of litigation, Dallas attorney Michael McCabe of Munck Carter says there are limits to freedom of speech, even on the Web. "If you make defamatory statements, that won't be protected by freedom of speech," says McCabe. "Can you be sued for it? Yes, if you are out there making defamatory statements online you very well might be sued for it."