Opinion. A Facebook post on Pete “Commando” Sandoval’s account turned a private message attributed to David Vincent into part of a public dispute. The post invites readers to ask why Vincent sent it. We came away wondering why it was published.

What the message actually says

In a statement signed by Pete and Vivi Sandoval, the pair describe Vincent’s message as an unsolicited defence. They link it to earlier tensions involving Morbid Angel and I Am Morbid, and say it came after Sandoval declined to make another Terrorizer record with Vincent. A follow-up comment written in the first person expresses pride in Sandoval’s work with Morbid Angel and Terrorizer and says he wants his name dissociated from Vincent’s.

In the message shown, Vincent says someone forwarded him a video he had yet to watch. He denies involvement and says he intends to tell the person behind it to drop the matter. His language about that person is blunt, but the message to Sandoval opens with a friendly greeting and closes on cordial terms. We see little to object to in the message itself. An unsolicited explanation can strike the recipient as defensive. The screenshot alone gives us little reason to read anything more into it.

A public post and a private reply

What justified putting the private exchange before an audience? Publishing identifiable correspondence raises a real question about privacy and personal data. Whether any law was breached would depend on the applicable jurisdiction and the circumstances of publication, including how the law balances privacy with freedom of expression.

Readers also faced restrictions on commenting (as the post was public but locked for comments). If readers were unable to reply, perhaps it was to avoid public judgment? Also, why take the exchange public in the first place? A Facebook post can give a private disagreement a much bigger audience. The value of that audience is harder to see when its role is simply to read along.

There may have been private exchanges beyond the one shown. Even so, if the concern was what Vincent meant or why he wrote, the screenshot already showed where to ask him. The reply box was right there.

Read the original post on Pete Sandoval’s Facebook account.