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

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

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AINTRODUCTION

IfFacebookwereacountr yitwouldbetheth irdlargestcountryin the

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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-

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

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groupsCourtPetersonisa nassociateatBordenLadnerGervai sLLPandalso

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 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

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GlobeandMailFebruaryonlineww wtheglobeandmailco mtechnology

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

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