The Ins And Outs Of Avoiding A Social Media Lawsuit
I can’t even stress just how valuable, crucial and astronomical this content really is in this day and age. As it stands, 700MM people use Facebook. Imagine just how many of those users utilize Facebook for business. That’s huge. Twitter and LinkedIn, too, are major corporate forces, establishing huge marketing and networking regimens to create new unprecedented revenue streams.
The problem, though, with social media is just how fast the concept has been growing. We often think that the concept has sort of stunted since Facebook exploded onto the scene. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s still growing. Fast. We’d normally think that’s not a problem except for the fact that the law regulating business can’t grow with it, obviously.
Legal Issues With Social Media Are Now a Problem
Oftentimes it’s a social media lawsuit that will effectively terminate a business. It’s very much like a silent killer. That’s because the law isn’t necessarily equipped quite well yet to handle certain litigative cases; and because of that, businesses can’t seem to navigate those waters well enough to stay afloat, and the resultant opinions of the courts sink them definitively.
We’re always asking what’s acceptable and what’s not, what’s admissible and what’s not. In this landscape, there’s a big gray area, and unfortunately that gray area may have some major potholes or land mines many companies end up falling on, and the rest is history.
It’s all about preparation, though. This is what you can do about the possibility of facing a social media lawsuit, starting with….
Developing a Social Media Policy
You need to act as if something could happen. Draft a standard that will ensure the possibility never occurs. Even if it does occur, you’re safely protected under business law standards. An effective social media policy within your business will ensure that you’ve implemented guidelines to how social media is utilized within your operations.
Simply define what your employees can and can’t do both at home and in the office. Spell it all out, almost ridiculously so, because as we all know, the legal industry is all about the dictionary. If it’s not written, there’s a problem. Here’s the obvious reason: say an employee did something on Facebook you technically didn’t agree with, and you fired that employee. That’s fine except for the fact that the employee may take you to court for wrongful termination. Why? Because you did not highlight that in a social media policy.
What Are the Most Common Laws Broken in Social Media?
In a way, social media is very much like a guilty pleasure. Use it sparingly, and it’ll benefit you; abuse it, and you abuse yourself. This is why oftentimes in the corporate world, many laws are actually broken through social media, and yet, no one ever realizes it or even enforces action taken to remedy the situation. Consider, specifically….
- Copyright and Trademark Laws — This is an easy one to break, because we often forget that whatever’s written on Facebook is essentially “published.” Before, it was easy to notice someone stealing someone else’s content. Online, though, how do you monitor that? How do you monitor someone stealing a video, a movie, a book, even a copyrighted photo? No one even realizes that, by law, a violation of copyright or trademark can result in a $150K violation, simply because you clicked a button to download something that didn’t belong to you (without permission, of course).
- Full Disclosure and FTC Advertising — We think it’s a free world out there in cyberspace, and for good reason: in a way, it is. However, irrevocably, the world of cyberspace is completely linked to the real world, and we have the experiences to prove it. That’s why the Federal Trade Commission has always made it a requirement to fully disclose that you are either a company or not associated with some company on your blog or Twitter profile. Making sure you separate yourself from your company in terms of your opinions or content is crucial when online, something we never would’ve considered before the advent of the World Wide Web.
- Respecting Privacy — This is huge. Privacy wasn’t a big deal back in the day, because there wasn’t much a person could do about invading it. A business was always behind walls and closed doors. Thanks to the Internet, though, anyone can peruse, explore or even hack into systems and find out as much as they want, everything from birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, locations and even trade secrets if you’re not careful. Watch what you’re doing online. Your data online, while yours, can then unfortunately belong to someone else without you knowing it.
- New Advertising Rules — It’s real easy for advertising platforms to get some space online with larger corporations like the Facebooks and LinkedIns of our century. People, unfortunately, forget that Facebook, for example, has certain rules for ad placements. You basically need to qualify, plus have language in your ads Facebook will approve. If you don’t, you may be subject to lawsuits filed by the social media giant, and that’s something you don’t want.
It’s all very intimidating, I know. The landscape has changed dramatically, and it’s still changing as we speak. The fact that laws are still trying to catch up doesn’t make it any easier. Thankfully, there are steps, as a business, you can take to ensure you never face any social media lawsuit.
They’re above. You’ve already read them. Review those policies and rules with your business lawyer. Follow them. Implement them. Make them your own.
Matt Faustman is the CEO at UpCounsel. You can follow his business insights on Twitter at @upcounsel.
Image: SPS
Posted in Social Networking.
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