Are the references in my articles with disclaimers also my own, logically?

Question

Concerning that some of the opinions I post on social media, like Twitter, Quora, and StackExchange may get me in trouble, I want to add a disclaimer on my profile. I have searched and found the following ones:

Opinions are my own.
Opinions expressed here are mine alone.
Posts/typos are personal views

Often I may cite others' opinions, like papers and blogs and I am not on any side actually, then I am wondering if the disclaimers above would mislead the readers to think that I am the owner of those opinions or views or that I am declaring something that is actually not mine.

Am I just overthinking or there are better expressions?

Answer 1

In short, a disclaimer won't stop you getting into trouble.

You see these on, for example, director commentary tracks on dvds. If Sony is distributing a movie, then Sony will put a notice saying "The views and opinions expressed in the commentary are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Sony Movies.

Sony puts that disclaimer there to protect the company from things that one of their employees might say. It protects Sony from potential lawsuits.

It doesn't protect the person who is expressing opinions, and if they say something bad, then they still get into trouble (with the company, with the law etc)

If you have been asked by your employer to place a disclaimer, then do so using the exact form of words that they ask you to use (even if it is ungrammatical).

If you haven't then it makes absolutely no difference what is written there, it has no legal consequence at all.

So. Yes, you are overthinking this! No. Nobody will think you wrote every line that you quote. That's not what a disclaimer like this is about.

Answer 2

To me, an explicit citation would override anything you’ve said about opinions being your own, and the reader would naturally understand that.

Perhaps we could add that it is your opinion that the citation is relevant, but again, the content of an explicit citation would never be understood to be your own opinion.

Answer 3

You could go with something like: "Opinions are mine alone. Citations, quotations, links and retweets are not endorsements."

There is in fact a risk that if you quote or link to something, people will assume you are endorsing it. If you google "retweets are not endorsements", it's definitely something that some people are using.

Even with the disclaimers, you should exercise caution and abide by any social media policies your employer or organisation has.