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

• Author: Michael C Smith and Court Peterson
• Pages: 227-257



EmployersandDefamation

intheAgeofSocialMedia

ALOOKATANEMPLOYERSPOTENTIAL

LIABILITYASAPUBLISHER

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countryitwouldbethethirdlargestcountryinthe

worldwithmillionactivemonthlyusersandmillionactivedaily

usersTheuseofsocialmediacontinuestogrowatanexponentialrate

IntherewerebillionpiecesofcontentsharedweeklyonFace-

bookupfrombillioninInthereweremilliontweets

* MichaelCSmithisapartneratBordenLadnerGervaisLLPTorontoandthe

regionalleaderofthermsDefamationandMediaLawGroupamongother

groupsCourtPetersonisanassociateatBordenLadnerGervaisLLPandalso

volunteerswithLawHelpOntario

 UsedwithpermissionTwierexchangeMarchMichaelCSmithtoRick

MercermindifIuseyourrogueinterntweetasanintroformypaperforthe

LawSocietySpecialLecturesRickMercertoMichaelCSmithSurellyour

boots

 Onlinewwwfacebookcom

 JeniseUeharaHenriksonTheGrowthofSocialMediaAnInfographicSearch

EngineJournalAugustonlinewwwsearchenginejournalcomthe

growthofsocialmediaaninfographic

MCSCP

perdayupfrommillion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usersper capita

intheworldInagivenmonthnearlypercentofCanadianspartici-

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employeeswillparticipateinsocialmediaeverydayIfemployers

providetheiremployeeswithacomputerasmartphoneoraccesstothe

Internetchancesarethatthoseemployeeswillengageinsocialmedia

usingthatinfrastructure

Manysocialmediaplatformsemphasizeshortfastburstsofcom-

municationAtweetislimitedtocharactersforexampleCommuni-

cationsaresentouttotheworldwiththeclick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nature

ofsocialmediadeemphasizeseditingonescommunicationorencour-

agingsobersecondthoughtbeforesendingmaterialoutintothevari-

oussocial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andthereality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questionthatmustthenbeaskedisthisIstheemployerexposed

toliabilityfordefamationasaresultofdefamatorypostingsmadeor

viewedby employees using the employersinf rastructure computers

smartphonesInternetsoftwareconnections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the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online

socialmediacontext

 Ibid

 Ibid

 MichaelOliveiraCanadasMostSociallyNetworkedTitleSlippingAwayThe

GlobeandMailFebruaryonlinewwwtheglobeandmailcomtechnology

digitalculturesocialwebcanadasmostsociallynetworkedtitleslippingaway

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