Employers and Defamation in the Age of Social Media: A Look at an Employer's Potential Liability as a 'Publisher'

AuthorMichael C Smith and Court Peterson
Pages227-257

EmployersandDefamation
intheAgeofSocialMedia
ALOOKATANEMPLOYERSPOTENTIAL
LI AB IL IT YA SA PU BL ISHER
MichaelCSmithandCourtPeterson*
MytweetsaremyownunlessIsaysomething
reallystupidthenitstherogueintern
RickMerceronTwierrickmercerFebruary
AINTRODUCTION
IfFacebookwereacountr yitwouldbetheth irdlargestcountryin the
world wit hmi llion acti vemont hlyu sersa ndm illi onact iveda ily
usersTheuseofsocialmediacont inuestogrowatanexponentialrate
In there were billionpieces ofcontent sharedweekly onFace-
bookupf rombillion inInthere weremilliont weets
* MichaelCSmithisapa rtneratBordenLadnerGervaisLLPTorontoandthe
regionalleaderofthe rmsDefamationandMediaLawGroupamongot her
groupsCourtPetersonisa nassociateatBordenLadnerGervai sLLPandalso
volunteerswithLawHelpOntar io
 Usedwithpermi ssionTwierexchangeMarchMichaelCSmithtoR ick
MercermindifIuseyou rrogueinterntwe etasanintroformypaperforthe
LawSocietySpec ialLecturesRickMercertoMich aelCSmithSurellyour
boots
 Onlineww wfacebookcom
 JeniseUeharaHen riksonTheGrowthofSocia lMediaAnInfographicSearch
EngineJournalAugustonlinewwwsearcheng inejournalcomthe
growthofsocialmediaaninfographic
MCSCP
perdayup frommill ioninFortythree percentofcompanies
currentlyuseblogsformarketingpurposespercentofcompaniesuse
FacebookandpercentuseTwier
Canadianshavethe highestnumberofsocialmediaus ersper capita
inthe worldIna givenmonthnearlypercent ofCanadianspartic i-
patei n social media in some form be it Facebook Twier LinkedIn
blogsmessage boardsor commentingon onlinecontent Many Can-
adiane mployeeswillpa rticipateins ocialmedia everydayIfemployers
providetheiremployeeswithacomputerasmartphoneoraccesstothe
Internetch ancesarethat thoseemployeeswill engageinsocial media
usingthatinfrast ructure
Manysoc ialmediaplatforms emphasizeshort fastbursts ofcom-
mun icatio nAtw eetisl imit edto chara cters forexa mpleCo mmun i-
cationsaresentouttotheworldwiththecl ickofamouseSocialmedia
are characterized by react ionary engagement with information They
providerealtimeengagementwiththetopicofthemomentThenat ure
ofsocialmed iadeemphasizeseditingonescommunicationor encour-
agingsobersecondthoughtbeforesendingmaterialoutintothevari-
oussoc ialmedia platformsinthe onlineworld userswrite quickly
andthenclicksendwithoutnecessarilyconsideringtheconsequences
Givent he nature of social media with t he emphasis on fast and
largelyun lteredcommunicationa ndthereal ityofthe paceof social
mediasexpansionthepotentialfordefamatorycontentonsocialmedia
seems boundless This b eing the case employersshould consider the
consequencesof theengagementoftheir employeeswith socialmedia
Thequest ionthatmust thenbe askedisth isIsthe employerexposed
tol iabilityfor defamationas aresult ofdefamatory postingsmade or
viewedby employees using the employersinf rastructure computers
smartphonesInternetsoftwareconnec tionstotheInternetthroughthe
companys erverthe companys internal network and so on Forex-
amplecananemployeraractliabilityfort hedefamatorytweetorblog
postofoneofitsemployees
This paperwill addressthe legalimplications forthe employerof
defamatorystatements madeorviewed byitsemployeesin theonli ne
socialmediacontext
 Ibid
 Ibid
 MichaelOliveiraCanadasMostSocia llyNetworkedTitleSlippingAwayThe
GlobeandMailFebruaryonlineww wtheglobeandmailco mtechnology
digitalculturesocialwebcanadasmostsociallynetworkedtitleslippingaway
art icle

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