Social Media Liability Paper

1075 Words5 Pages

When attend a Human Resource, Marketing, Business or Legal conference social media will be a topic of discussion. Social media for many businesses can be a great idea, but it’s very important to put some restrictions and procedures in place and be very consistent with enforcement. Most employers and employees are probably not covered by a General Liability policy. The laws that are governing social media continue to change rapidly. Employers must speak with their attorney’s to completely understand the social media liability issues facing their business. The liability facing employers is very important and everyone in the business needs to understand what the governing acts consist of and have clear social media policies in placed in order. …show more content…

Because we are able to post on Facebook, Twitter and etc. about their everyday lives, whether it’s good or bad it could cause plenty of damage to the business. It’s so easy for an employee to post a status, write a comment or take a picture without any knowledge of the damage it has caused especially when someone is angry or frustrated but once it’s posted, it’s out there forever. The desire of users to post intimate details about their everyday lives make some employers believe that they “have a right to know how their employees portray themselves and their organizations online (Lanham, 2010).” However, employers should tread carefully before making any decisions based on information garnered from social media sites because employees may derive privacy rights from an array of federal and state laws (Lanham, 2010). “The most common cause of action for social media-related claims has been the Stored Communications Act (“SCA”). The SCA prohibits the knowing or intentional unauthorized access to “a facility through which an electronic communication service is provided (Lanham, 2010).” This basically means that an employer cannot try to access password protected accounts without the consent of the accountholder if the account is held via a third …show more content…

The main advantages include simplifying communication between employees which could help information transfer. Another strong advantage to allowing social media in the workplace is it will help increase business contacts it allows an easy platform for potential customers and partners. The Society for Human Resource Management website, demonstrates my final point on why social media is beneficial in the workplace, they state “It improves business reputation and client base with minimal use of advertising.” There are a few disadvantages related with allowing social media sites in the workplace. First, social media exposes users to spam and many different virus attacks from hackers which could cause the company harm. Second, allowing employees to use social media sites allows the possibility of negative attention since employees are the face of the company. Inappropriate language or content on an employee’s page can be harmful to that person’s employer. The final disadvantage to allowing social media in the workplace is it could potentially result in loss of productivity if employee’s abuse there privileges. Many times an employer may come upon a situation where employees are using social media sites to vent their frustration, or even worst to spread a little bit of