Legal matters in social media

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Legal matters in Social Media. What should companies be aware of? Guneet Singh Arneja - www.guneetarne ja.info - [email protected] Ishmeet Singh Bedi – www.ishmeetsb.info [email protected] Abhinav Verma - www.thevermas.co.in - [email protected] Aditi Verma – www. aditivermagl.c om - [email protected] om Garima Narang - www.garimanarang.com - [email protected]

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Transcript of Legal matters in social media

Page 1: Legal matters in social media

Legal matters in Social Media. What should companies be aware

of?

Guneet Singh Arneja - www.guneetarneja.info - [email protected] Singh Bedi – www.ishmeetsb.info – [email protected]

Abhinav Verma - www.thevermas.co.in - [email protected]

Aditi Verma – www.aditivermagl.com - [email protected]

Garima Narang - www.garimanarang.com - [email protected]

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Mitigating the social risks of Social Media

• Social media litigation is increasing and research reveals that businesses should act now to protect reputation and avoid lawsuits

• A new research study of UK companies reveals that 53% of UK businesses do not consider social media legal risks to be an issue or priority

• The research conducted by social media consultancy, reveals a knowledge gap on what laws and regulations might apply to social media. Over 68% of respondents said they had a basic, beginners or no personal knowledge of social media laws.

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Legal Issues

0Content Ownership & Intellectual Property0Electronic discovery & Evidence0Privacy0HR issues0Other Issues

EndorsementsHarassment & Unfair competitionDiscrimination & Defamation

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Content Ownership & Intellectual Property

• Using content without owner’s permission on • Posting of third-party content by employees of an organization

or even its fans and followers may violate copyright or trademarks

• In above situations, organizations or individuals may face infringement claims.

1. Licencing authoritieshttp://creativecommons.org/ - A copyright licence providerhttp://www.copyright.com/ - A copyrights licencing experthttp://www.benedict.com/ - A copyright portal

2. Content monitoring

Companies should be aware of

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Electronic discovery & Evidence

Is obtaining this information in such a manner for litigation purposes permissible in light of potential privacy concerns?

If this information is relevant in a litigation context, the parties in a litigation are likely to seek to obtain it via e-discovery.

Information generated by interactions on social media.

The role of social media organisations in such cases and what problems can arise if a litigant fails to preserve social media information.

Companies must be aware of

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Privacy0 Extra caution required while posting on social media.

Disclosing confidential info, posting photographs or video without proper releases or permissions violates individual privacy rights

0 Examples/Incidents: Health care industry: Sharing patient’s condition on social media is a

possible violation Two debt collection agencies posted debt related info to a woman’s Myspace

page, she sued them for violating ‘Fair Debt Collection Act’.

0 The terms and conditions of social media sites may result in legal liability if violated. Laws such as Children's Online Privacy Protection Act may have applicability

with respect to an organization’s “fan” page.

To what extent do these privacy policies apply, if at all, to its social media activities.

Companies must be aware of

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HR Issues0 Recommending your employees/colleagues on Linkedin?

Good recommendation - Makes it difficult for a company to defend against a claim of wrongful termination.

Negative recommendation - May result in discrimination, defamation, or workplace retaliation claims.

0 Overzealous employers that create fake social media accounts to monitor social media activities of their employees

0 Social media, the new water cooler? Employees freely posting on FB, twitter etc. about:

Work conditions/pressure or company matters Criticizing the employer

Is this illegal? Are they violating company’s policy?

1. Acts and regulations under ‘National Labour Relations Board’2. Can they prohibit these acts or change policies for social media?

Companies must be aware of

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Other Issues0 Endorsements

0 Individuals receive compensation for discussing (advertising) a product or service online, like free software, perks for recommending an employer or discounted air tickets. These have to disclose that they are compensated or paid for this, as per the new rules by the Federal Trade Commission.

0 Defaming or Unfair Competition0 Defamatory statements made about individuals and disparaging

remarks to be made about companies’ products and services.0 Pushing the competitors down by posting false claims against them.

0 Discrimination & Harassment0 Posting content which ignites discrimination on the bases like gender,

colour, religion etc.0 Harassing individuals by posting explicit content against them using

fake identity.

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Regulatory complianceA lot has changed over the last two years and industry regulators are aware of the use and abuse of social media

Social Media in Advertising and Commerce: 0 The FTC(Federal Trade Commission)

has a prime directive to protect consumers and it has pursued this mandate by enforcing companied terms of use and privacy policies.

0 The FTC settled a case with Facebook, where that agreed to settle FTC charges that it deceived consumers to keep their information private, then repeatedly allowed it to be shared and made public.

0 Facebook took several steps to live up to its promise.

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• FDA provides policy and legal guidance for the promotion of medical products using social media tools

Healthcare and pharmaceutical

• NLRB has a mandate to protect employee rights to discuss working conditions without the fear of reprisal from employer.

Workplace

• FINRA issued regulatory notice providing guidance on the application of FINRA rules governing communication with the public to social media sites.

Financial service

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Possible Consequences & Changes

Firms may have to rethink their social media programs and even limit them. Possible changes may include:0 Build company websites and have their associates link to their

corporate sites, so as to integrate their marketing efforts.0 Firms may modify their procedure to allow only sites like LinkedIn or

Twitter that have amore open architecture0 More frequent attestations and certifications of policy adherence at

firms0 Firms may resort to reviewing and individual personal social media

sites “over the shoulder” to ensure compliance.0 Reviewing in routine supervision of public information on social media

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