Social Media and the Workplace

Social media—encompassing web-based and mobile interactive technologies, including blogs, photo sharing, forums, and social networking, using platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and YouTube—is easily available, constantly evolving, and increasingly pervasive. It is a tool for business and a means of personal social interaction.

Epstein Becker Green's attorneys offer a full range of legal services to help clients minimize the risks presented by a digital workplace while maximizing its advantages and opportunities.

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These services include:

• Counseling clients on workplace concerns and best practices relating to:
  • Social media harassment and discrimination
  • Facebook "friending" and online relationships between management and subordinates
  • Advertising claims made online about company products and services, as well as liability under the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guidelines
  • The protection of trade secrets and other proprietary and confidential data online
  • Employee privacy rights concerning, among other things, communications and information sent or stored in the company's electronic information systems
  • Online union organizing and protected concerted activity
  • Wage and hour issues, such as non-exempt employees' participation in company blogs or social media sites on and off the clock
  • Facebook "fishing" of applicants for recruitment purposes
  • Restrictions on social media at work
  • The use in litigation of evidence secured from social media sites
• Assisting clients in drafting effective social media policies that define employee rights and obligations, provide guidance to management, and establish a record of compliance efforts
• Reviewing company policies, agreements, and systems (e.g., non-compete agreements; anti-bullying policies; non-disclosure, confidentiality agreements; electronic systems; non-discrimination, non-harassment policies, etc.) to ensure that they are consistent with, and further, the company's social media policy
• Advising clients on how to train management to fairly and consistently enforce their company's social media policy
• Helping clients successfully navigate the maze of international, federal, state, and local statutes and regulations that impact social media, including laws protecting activity outside the workplace, lifestyle discrimination laws, and whistleblower laws, as well as industry regulations and guidelines

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