| Kippreport.com

Your company responsible for your Facebook page?

December 6, 2010 5:40 by kippreport

According to Emirates 24-7, companies in both the Dubai International Financial Centre and Qatar Financial Centre can be held accountable for the social media postings of their employees.

Whoa, thinks Kipp. That’s pretty scary. We have sudden visions of new employment contracts that hand control of your Facebook page to the boss as companies try to protect themselves. And if the boss or HR takes over your site, what on earth would the board make of those pictures of you in that bar in Prague on that stag do? Yes, you know what bar we’re talking about. And that’s before we even get on to the status updates. “Mark has generally disappointed and will get no bonus this year.” “Sara will be working late on Tuesday.” “Austyn has his company medical this morning.”

Your Twitter account could turn into a corporate mouthpiece; you’ll find yourself saying “@salil is lucky to have the best boss ever,” or “@steve thinks his company is the best place to work in the world.” All in the place of your usual ranting and raving about unpaid overtime and your colleagues or boss.

Well, don’t panic. Read a bit into the story and you find the whole thing is PR fluff generated by Clyde and Co, which says that employment law means employers are responsible if one employer slanders or bullies another via a social medium.

“Under DIFC and QFC employment law, an employer may be held vicariously liable for the actions of its employees, for example bullying or harassing a colleague by comments made on Facebook or Twitter,” the law firm said in a report. To avoid liability, the firm says strong guidelines must be in place.

Like we say, cheap PR for the most part. But then we just wrote about it, which will only encourage them. Perhaps there’s an argument for our employer taking charge of this blog, at the very least…

Tags: company social media, employee facebook, employee social media, employee twitter, employer facebook, employer social media, employer twitter, facebook at work, facebook bullying, social media at work, social media responsibility, twitter at work, twitter bullying