REGULATORY OUTLOOK
Social Networking Websites:
What Managers Need to Know
Employees’ Unchecked Internet Use Can Have Legal Consequences
BY PAUL WATERS AND NATALIE NORFUS
Social networking websites such as Facebook, Linkedin,
Twitter and the like are beginning to dominate the
ways that people and businesses interact. Whether you
are connecting with your long lost friend from first
grade or with President Barack Obama, these websites
offer endless opportunities for social interaction and
business development.
With these blessings comes the curse: any and
everything that employees think, feel or do can be exposed for the world to see. Stories of employees who
bear their souls (and much more) about topics that are
not always appropriate for the workplace have become
all too common. This behavior, in turn, has led to increased terminations—even when the employee’s Internet foray occurs during non-working hours. Now more
than ever, organizations must equip themselves with
policies and procedures to combat the issues that can
arise in the workplace as a result of social networking
websites.
Liability Pitfalls
Employee Internet use, even during non-working
hours, can have the following consequences for organizations.
Defamation claims. What if a displeased employee
vents about a coworker on his Facebook page during
work hours? Even worse, what if the coworker sues the
organization and the employee for defamation?
This exact scenario has not yet hit the headlines, but
Cisco Systems, Inc. recently settled a defamation lawsuit
brought against it and one of its in-house lawyers for
the lawyer’s comments on an anonymous blog. Apparently displeased with the types of cases filed against
Cisco by two Texas lawyers, the in-house lawyer took
his frustrations to a blog. When he revealed his identity,
Cisco and the lawyer were hit with a lawsuit. While organizations are not generally liable for employee conduct that occurs outside the scope of his employment or
an employer’s directions, the Cisco case shows that getting out of defamation suits on this basis often requires
fact-intensive analysis and can be very costly.
Harassment and discrimination claims. An extreme
example of how an employee’s Internet activities can
be costly for an organization arose in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a female police officer against
