Maud Zimmerman
Invasion of Privacy Charges in Rutgers Case
These articles discuss the charges that have been brought against Dharun Ravi for using a web cam to spy on his college roommate, Tyler Clementi. (1,2) Clementi committed suicide after learning that Ravi and others had witnessed him kissing a man in their dorm room over a webcam on his roommate’s computer, and that Ravi had then tried to set up and stream video of another encounter, which was publicized on his Twitter feed. Danielle Citron’s discussion of the way privacy harms are magnified in the Internet age seems particularly relevant to this case. Here Ravi’s actions may have led directly or indirectly to Tyler Clementi’s suicide. They clearly contributed to significant emotional distress for Clementi in the days before his death.
The Rutgers case started a public outcry over cyberbullying, particularly for LGBT youth, and prompted at least one state to adopt tough new laws about bullying online and in the schoolyard. (3) This was an especially shocking case because Ravi’s actions intruded upon a particularly private and sensitive area of Clementi’s personal life, which Ravi exposed to fellow classmates and his online audience of followers on Twitter. Ravi did not simply start online rumors about his roommate’s sexual orientation, but actually tried to stream live video footage of a sexual encounter, an intrusion that any reasonable person would consider to be a massive violation of privacy. Given the dramatic facts of this case, it seems clear that Ravi severely injured his roommate even in terms of Prosser’s somewhat narrow conceptualization of privacy interests. Despite this already strong case, however, it is striking that prosecutors brought a total of 15 charges against Ravi, including additional charges of witness tampering, destruction of evidence, and a hate crime. I’m not sure if they feared that a conviction on the privacy tort alone would lead to an inappropriately lenient sentence, or if they were motivated by the intense publicity the case received and the tragedy of Clementi’s suicide. It will be interesting to see how Ravi’s trial plays out, and the ramifications of this case for similar torts in future where the outcome is not as tragic, but the psychic harm to the victim of the intrusion is nevertheless severe.
1. Roommate Is Arraigned in Rutgers Spy-Suicide Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/nyregion/roommate-arraigned-in-rutgers-spy-suicide-case.html
2. Roommate Faces Hate-Crime Charges in Rutgers Case
3. Bullying Law Puts New Jersey Schools on Spot
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/nyregion/bullying-law-puts-new-jersey-schools-on-spot.html