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
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
article

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