A Roger’s Sportsnet newscaster was fired recently for tweeting his views on gay marriage.

It was called a new employment phenomenon, career suicide by social media. It’s not new though, last year a woman’s firing was made news after she had a bad day at work and shared it with her “friends” on Facebook. Trouble was, she’d also “friended” her boss. She was told (via Facebook), that she didn’t need to show up for work in future.

It’s a warning to us all that the Internet is not the safe haven of anonymity that we would believe.

Judges are generally willing to order Internet Providers to disclose the identity of people using pseudonyms to criticize others.

In some cases, even having a link to a site that defames someone can be construed as publication under Canadian Libel Laws, leaving you as in as much trouble as the person that posted the comment in the first place.

Michael Smith, of Borden Ladner Gervais, offers the following tips for companies to avoid cyber-libel.

• create clear guidelines and policies for the use of social media in the workplace. These should be built into contracts and include the use of laptops, cellphones and smart phones.
• educate employees about the policies for using social media at work and while using company property.
• if you use Twitter, Facebook for your own business, make sure a team of reviewers checks outbound comments before being posted and are moderated.
• you should implement a “sober second thought” policy. Have a colleague read any negative email or message before sending it. (this is good policy for any of us)

It is likely best, another lawyer advises, if you don’t host an interactive website at all.

• if you do host a website with comments enabled, take down any negative or potentially defamatory comments immediately when notified. (better yet, moderate first)

It’s a minefield out there and what we all have to learn is that the rules haven’t changed in our interactions with other people.  We just have to updating our thinking about the immediacy of social media and email.  What we write to day is “out there” forever in cyberspace.

Source: The Toronto Star