This weekend, the NDP candidate for Vancouver False-Creek, Ray Lam, was forced to resign after “inappropriate” photos from his Facebook profile were made public. This hasn’t been the first time that political candidates’ dirty laundry has surfaced during a campaign – I recall this exact situation occurring a number of times during the federal election. Not to mention, in years to come, this is simply going to happen more and more as our use of technologies such as Facebook increases.
That said, there are a number of issues surrounding this whole story, and I firmly believe that Ray Lam should not have resigned.
1. These were private photos
The pictures in question were on Ray Lam’s private Facebook profile. These photos were not made available to everyone on the internet for a perfectly good reason. They should be just as inaccessible to the public as Joe Schmo’s box of Woodstock Love-In pics from the 60′s. They are both private media.
Now I know that once something goes online, it’s bound to never leave the internet again. However, Facebook is a locked-down social network, meaning people can only see what you want them to see – everything else is automatically privatized.
These photos weren’t public. They were leaked. And that is completely unfair to Ray Lam, his personal reputation, and the NDP.
We should all have the right to post whatever we want on our private Facebook profiles to share with our friends, and not worry that that media will get into the wrong hands.
This is an affront not just to Ray Lam, but to our collective online privacy.
2. The leaked photos were posted by News1130
Now I know we’re going down the rabbit hole here into the unregulated territory of the wild, wild web, but there is something absolutely unethical about the fact that News1130 posted the leaked photos in their report on the story.
I repeat – these were private photos. Ray Lam has rights to them, Facebook has rights to them – News1130 does not. They have no right whatsoever to replicate these photos in any manner without permission.
To post them without that permission is despicable. This will have terrible ramifications for Lam, who I believe should sue the company for this, and just goes to show how low our journalistic standards have dropped.
UPDATE: The Globe has posted them as well. The Sun, CTV, and The Hook haven’t.
3. The photos weren’t all that “inappropriate”
One photo had Lam grabbing a woman’s breast while dancing. Considering she’s smiling, and the fact that Lam is gay, I doubt this is cause for alarm. I don’t know about the Boomers, but Gen Xers do this all the time. And there’s nothing wrong with it as long as it was consensual.
The second photo had Lam in underwear posing with two friends. How is it okay to have nearly nude models strewn across TV, magazines, newspapers, billboards, and storefronts – but because Lam is a candidate for public office, suddenly this is not acceptable?
Have people seen what is on the Internet? Has the public ever gotten drunk and taken some fun pics? And who hasn’t shown some skin – whether at a club, on the beach, at a party, on the web, or in the privacy of your own home?
Neither of the pictures are inappropriate. And the material in them certainly wasn’t illegal.
And, again, judging what’s in these pictures is none of our business, considering they were private to begin with!
4. Elected officials are normal people
This just goes to show that elected officials, or people that choose to run for public office, are normal human beings.
Whether it’s leaked Facebook photos, driving drunk while on vacation, or being the former leader of the National Citizens Coalition, our politicians have long histories, with different experiences, stories, and adventures. They’ve all encountered happy, wacky, absurd, and disappointing situations in life.
Just like the rest of us.
And while we may sometimes like to think of them as the clean cut leaders of society, they aren’t. Not even one of them. Because they are human.
They make mistakes.
The question is, do we want to accept our politicians are normal people who’ve decided to serve the public, and respect the line between their public and private lives, or do we want to set the bar so high as to expect Gods as our leaders and up end with nothing less than a bitchfest during elections based on who can scoop up the most dirt – leaving us with no good candidates left to vote for.
thanks for giving me a link to the private photos. i really wanted to see them.
I was very disappointed that Ray stepped down so quickly. They are private pictures and also reflect just some silly fun with friends. Was it a bad decision to post them, yes for sure it was, nothing is private once you push that enter key. But I sure don’t feel it warrants him backing out of the race.
I don’t fault him for any of the actions in the photos, we’ve all done much more stupid things. I guess I will fault him a little for keeping them up on the net; yes complete removal of anything is impossible with archives and “way back machines”, but once he decided to run for office he should have made sure that everything current was appropriate; whether it was private or not.
You have an excellent point about copyright; the news services have no rights to it. They would prevent Mr. Lam from using any pictures their own photographers had used.
But whether you and I fault him for these pictures, I think an important consideration would be what would the NDP do if a Liberal member that had something “inappropriate” surface? Most certainly they would have demanded a resignation from office and/or dropping out of the race (depending on when it occurred). I’m not picking on the NDP, every party would do that if a rival party had a hint of something they could leverage. And as long as they demand that of their opposition, they need to play be the same rules. So while I feel bad for Mr. Lam and don’t agree that he did anything wrong, his own party would need to stop participating in the cycle before they could expect their own members to be immune from it.
I agree with you completly. I am also completly shocked that they originally posted the photos without blurring any faces. I wonder how the people in those pictures feel about having these pictures posted on just about every newspaper and shown on every news station across Canada. Completely innocent people have now been dragged into this, I just hope no damage has been done to any of the people in the pictures.
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The photos were indeed public.
The photos could be viewed by anyone with a Facebook account, as Ray Lam did not have any privacy settings restricting access to the photos.
Which makes them public photos. End of story.
The fact Ray Lam had those photos on his Facebook account while running for public office proves his lack of judgement.
IF the photos were “leaked” or used as black mail this would be a whole different story, but they were public photos.
And for the love of god, How can you blame the media on this one?
The photos are the story. It would be a public disservice to not publish the photos.
Ray created a web 2.0 response to this whole thing because of all the media spin and misinformation around his resignation.
His statement on the home page is…unbelievable tame, and he writes about the whole incident in a blog, which is actually pretty interesting.
Give it a read: http://www.raysunderwearaffair.com.
I think one important lesson is to learn that what appears on the web stays on the web! I don’t know Ray Lam himself but I do know that I wouldn’t want my photos nor my friends to be exposed publicly for an honestly innocent mistake I’d made.
I was very disappointed that Ray stepped down so quickly. They are private pictures and also reflect just some silly fun with friends. Was it a bad decision to post them, yes for sure it was, nothing is private once you push that enter key. But I sure don't feel it warrants him backing out of the race.
I struggle with bragging on social media too. My friends even approve me of it by liking my posts and replying to it. Nobody rubukes me. Not even my family members.
The key is the always use sound judgment and self control when posting things regardless of privacy settings. Your photos never get deleted and anyone can view them. It’s never safe to give out personal information to the public. By default, the privacy settings of facebook users over 18 is public. It can be a double edged sword. The upside is that it is easier to screen for criminals while the downside is that you can be a target for ID thieves.
Is it a right thing to do by letting the candidate step down? What if someone posts evidence of their crimes but they did not know it was public? Like drug dealing, stealing, vandalism, etc. Would it be a good idea to let them be a candidate or report them?