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 |
EmployersandDefamation
intheAgeofSocialMedia
ALOOKATANEMPLOYERSPOTENTIAL
LI AB IL IT YA SA PU BL ISHER
MichaelCSmithandCourtPeterson*
MytweetsaremyownunlessIsaysomething
reallystupidthenitstherogueintern
RickMerceronTwierrickmercerFebruary
AINTRODUCTION
IfFacebookwereacountr yitwouldbetheth irdlargestcountryin the
world wit hmi llion acti vemont hlyu sersa ndm illi onact iveda ily
usersTheuseofsocialmediacont inuestogrowatanexponentialrate
In there were billionpieces ofcontent sharedweekly onFace-
bookupf rombillion inInthere weremilliont weets
* MichaelCSmithisapa rtneratBordenLadnerGervaisLLPTorontoandthe
regionalleaderofthe rmsDefamationandMediaLawGroupamongot her
groupsCourtPetersonisa nassociateatBordenLadnerGervai sLLPandalso
volunteerswithLawHelpOntar io
Usedwithpermi ssionTwierexchangeMarchMichaelCSmithtoR ick
MercermindifIuseyou rrogueinterntwe etasanintroformypaperforthe
LawSocietySpec ialLecturesRickMercertoMich aelCSmithSurellyour
boots
Onlineww wfacebookcom
JeniseUeharaHen riksonTheGrowthofSocia lMediaAnInfographicSearch
EngineJournalAugustonlinewwwsearcheng inejournalcomthe
growthofsocialmediaaninfographic
MCSCP
perdayup frommill ioninFortythree percentofcompanies
currentlyuseblogsformarketingpurposespercentofcompaniesuse
FacebookandpercentuseTwier
Canadianshavethe highestnumberofsocialmediaus ersper capita
inthe worldIna givenmonthnearlypercent ofCanadianspartic i-
patei n social media in some form be it Facebook Twier LinkedIn
blogsmessage boardsor commentingon onlinecontent Many Can-
adiane mployeeswillpa rticipateins ocialmedia everydayIfemployers
providetheiremployeeswithacomputerasmartphoneoraccesstothe
Internetch ancesarethat thoseemployeeswill engageinsocial media
usingthatinfrast ructure
Manysoc ialmediaplatforms emphasizeshort fastbursts ofcom-
mun icatio nAtw eetisl imit edto chara cters forexa mpleCo mmun i-
cationsaresentouttotheworldwiththecl ickofamouseSocialmedia
are characterized by react ionary engagement with information They
providerealtimeengagementwiththetopicofthemomentThenat ure
ofsocialmed iadeemphasizeseditingonescommunicationor encour-
agingsobersecondthoughtbeforesendingmaterialoutintothevari-
oussoc ialmedia platformsinthe onlineworld userswrite quickly
andthenclicksendwithoutnecessarilyconsideringtheconsequences
Givent he nature of social media with t he emphasis on fast and
largelyun lteredcommunicationa ndthereal ityofthe paceof social
mediasexpansionthepotentialfordefamatorycontentonsocialmedia
seems boundless This b eing the case employersshould consider the
consequencesof theengagementoftheir employeeswith socialmedia
Thequest ionthatmust thenbe askedisth isIsthe employerexposed
tol iabilityfor defamationas aresult ofdefamatory postingsmade or
viewedby employees using the employersinf rastructure computers
smartphonesInternetsoftwareconnec tionstotheInternetthroughthe
companys erverthe companys internal network and so on Forex-
amplecananemployeraractliabilityfort hedefamatorytweetorblog
postofoneofitsemployees
This paperwill addressthe legalimplications forthe employerof
defamatorystatements madeorviewed byitsemployeesin theonli ne
socialmediacontext
Ibid
Ibid
MichaelOliveiraCanadasMostSocia llyNetworkedTitleSlippingAwayThe
GlobeandMailFebruaryonlineww wtheglobeandmailco mtechnology
digitalculturesocialwebcanadasmostsociallynetworkedtitleslippingaway
art icle
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