In 2017, Massachusetts teen Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for having urged her boyfriend, via text messages, to commit suicide, see Commonwealth v. Carter, 115 N.E.3d 559 (Mass. 2019), petition for cert. docketed sub nom. Carter v. Massachusetts, U.S. (July 11, 2019). The case, which has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, set off a firestorm of debate about the circumstances under which text messaging and social media use should lead to liability.

What if, for example, Carter had encouraged her boyfriend to commit suicide by publicly posting comments on social media, or by texting her thoughts to a group of classmates, as opposed to messaging him privately? What if someone had “liked” her post encouraging him to end his life?