It seems everyone is on social media these days. For better or worse, it has become an essential part of our personal and professional lives. Probably due to some complex anthropological reason, people find it far easier to express themselves online, hidden behind a keyboard or gadget, than face-to-face with a real-life person. And unfortunately, many people have created legal problems for themselves as a result of their behaviour on social media.
So, here is your Chief Legal Columnist’s top five tips when using social media.
- Obey the golden rule. Don’t publish on social media something you would never say to someone’s face in a public street. Obeying this rule is the easiest way to avoid falling foul of defamation, anti-discrimination and bullying laws. It’s also a great way to protect your future career aspirations. So don’t tell fibs in your LinkedIn profile, don’t post inappropriate selfies on Instagram and don’t be a troll on twitter: it will come back to bite you.
- Your employment contract – not free speech – takes priority. Courts have recently found that the terms of employment contracts, and an employee’s common law duty of loyalty to their employer, take precedence over freedom of speech. Don’t whinge about your employer on facebook. Don’t ‘like’ a post where a colleague is bagging your boss. Don’t even bag your employer anonymously via twitter from your personal computer, sitting on your couch at home: it may well detrimentally affect your career. Former Department of Immigration and Border Protection employee Michaela Banerji (aka La Legale on twitter) recently discovered this. If you have grievances with your employer, follow your workplace’s procedures and/or whistle-blower laws: don’t vent on social media.
- Don’t be misleading and deceptive. Laws in the real world apply equally on social media. In the real world, businesses can’t make claims that are false or misleading to consumers. People can’t make statements about others that are defamatory. The same laws apply on social media. Think carefully before you make any accusations or claims, whether against someone personally or against a company. Even publishing false claims about a business competitor on your personal facebook page can expose you to being sued, something swimwear designer Leah Madden experienced in the Seafolly case.
- Monitor your social media pages and act quickly. You are ultimately responsible for what third parties post on your social media accounts. If you run a business, you must closely monitor third party posts on your facebook page and remove anything misleading or defamatory. Allergy Pathway Pty Ltd learnt this lesson when it failed to remove false “testimonials” posted on its social media channels. Use the privacy and security settings to control who can post on your facebook page; requiring administrator approval facilitates prudent monitoring of third-party posts.
- Intellectual property laws apply on social media. You can’t rip off someone else’s trade mark and pretend to be them, or you’ll find that your social media post or account is quickly removed when the trade mark owner discovers your infringement. facebook and twitter have strict policies when it comes to intellectual property infringement and it’s relatively easy for IP owners to enforce their legal rights. Copyright on YouTube also applies; consider whether you need the copyright owner’s permission before you upload a video onto YouTube. But if your pet cat takes a selfie, there’s no copyright, so there’s not much you can do if it goes viral and you miss out on royalties – just like nature photographer David Slater’s monkey selfie recently did!
Note: the above is general information and should not be considered as legal advice.