As the issue of the policy, law and ethics in new media world has been widely discussed, problems relating to this issue have increasingly occurred, especially in social media. Establishing social media policy, applicable laws and a code of social media ethics could be a plausible way of dealing with these problems.
1.0 Social Media Policy and Applicable Laws
As social media becomes increasingly popular in business, most organisations establish their Social Media Policy (SMP). SMP is a document stipulating internal rules for employees participating on Social Networking Sites (SNS), including Facebook and Twitter, to prevent misconduct when using these forms of social media. It is essential for companies to organise a SMP because inappropriate behavior could damage the reputation of companies.[1]
1.1 Avoiding Legal Risks
In addition the protecting organisations' reputation, SMP could also help organisations when dealing with potential legal risks including:
Loss of confidential information
Breach of copyright
Defamation
False statements and or misleading and deceptive conduct
As a successful telecommunication company in Australia, Telstra has realised that social media should be used by its employees under company’s guidelines. Therefore, it has built its SMP, which could be a useful model for other organisations, including Telstra’s "3 Rs of Social Media Engagement". These 3 Rs are: Representation, Responsibility and Respect.
Representation: Telstra asks its employees to be aware of their role and degree of accountability in the company when they represent their business unit in Telstra on social media, especially on SNS.
Responsibility: The employees of Telstra need to ensure that any content posted on SNS relating to Telstra is accurate and cannot be of an obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, discriminatory or hateful nature.
Respect: Telstra’s employees are also required to respect others ranging from individuals, companies, and to communities when stating their opinions online.[3]
Although social media policy is set to guide and govern the employees of organisations, some employees may break these rules, be it accidentally or deliberately. Their actions could oppose laws such as copyright infringement, trademark infringement and the Privacy Act - all of which an employer would prefer to prevent from occurring. One of the considerable examples however, is when customers’ information is disclosed by insiders on social media platforms. Momentarily excluding the ramifications of disclosure an individual's private information, the provision of misleading information on social media by employees poses a serious risk to a company's integrity as it too is unlawful. As an example, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) discovered that there were several misleading comments on Allergy Pathway’s Facebook wall in August 2009. Consequently, this company and its director were each fined $7 500 due to the failure to remove these comments posted by its clients.[4]
2.0 Social Media Ethics
While these policies and laws attempt to govern and restrict social media users’ behavior, the ethics could also play an important role in social media world. Social media ethics could be defined differently in various countries and cultures, and would be chosen to practice by users of the technology. Therefore, there are a variety of interpretations of these ethics for people using social media to determine what behaviour is acceptable or inappropriate, even if it is not illegal. Cyber bullying could be one of considerable examples of social media ethics.
2.1 What is Cyber Bullying?
Differing from the commonly-accepted definition of bullying involving real life harassment, cyber bullying occurs by using technology to deliberately hurt others by humiliating, harassing, intimidating or threatening another individual/s online, especially on social media platforms. It is not like other forms of real life bullying that is limited to the school setting or office space, and can occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Generally, cyber bullying includes:
Sending nasty or threatening texts or emails
Posting abusive messages online
Posting or sending humiliating videos or pictures online
While an increasing number of people, especially youths, do not take their online behaviors as seriously as their real life actions, some people may exploit social media to cyber bully other online users due to the lack of social media ethics.[6] These bullies may use anonymous accounts to hurt others as their identity is not as easily tracked, where the consequences of doing so are perceived to not be as serious. Irrespective of the bully's opinions, the victims are just as affected as victims of real life bullying, where cyber bullying has led to several suicides such as Tyler Clementi and Phoebe Prince.[7]
2.3 Anti-cyberbullying
To prevent cyber bullying, it is essential that the social media community build a code of ethics as well as assisting those suffering from cyber bullying via anti-cyberbullying tools. CyberMentorsis one of useful anti-cyberbullying websites where young people can help and supporting each other online.[8]With the advent of new media and avenues of communication emerges the need for risk-management of such social outlets. The development of a universally-accepted code of ethics stating what is classified as appropriate and inappropriate behaviour is the first step to ensure individuals take ownership for their posts and consider how their actions may affect others.
Mayo-Smith, D 2010, “5 steps to a social media policy”, NZ Business, 24, 10, p. 63, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 September 2011.
Groc, I 2007, "Taunting with Tech.", PC Magazine, 26, 17, p. 20, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 16 September 2011.
^ Vaughan, R 2009, "Cyber bullying pushes teenagers towards suicide", Times Educational Supplement, 4831, p. 27, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 16 September 2011.
The Policy, Law and Ethics
Table of Contents
As the issue of the policy, law and ethics in new media world has been widely discussed, problems relating to this issue have increasingly occurred, especially in social media. Establishing social media policy, applicable laws and a code of social media ethics could be a plausible way of dealing with these problems.
1.0 Social Media Policy and Applicable Laws
As social media becomes increasingly popular in business, most organisations establish their Social Media Policy (SMP). SMP is a document stipulating internal rules for employees participating on Social Networking Sites (SNS), including Facebook and Twitter, to prevent misconduct when using these forms of social media. It is essential for companies to organise a SMP because inappropriate behavior could damage the reputation of companies.[1]
1.1 Avoiding Legal Risks
In addition the protecting organisations' reputation, SMP could also help organisations when dealing with potential legal risks including:
1.2 Organisations' SMP
As a successful telecommunication company in Australia, Telstra has realised that social media should be used by its employees under company’s guidelines. Therefore, it has built its SMP, which could be a useful model for other organisations, including Telstra’s "3 Rs of Social Media Engagement". These 3 Rs are: Representation, Responsibility and Respect.1.3 Applicable Laws
Although social media policy is set to guide and govern the employees of organisations, some employees may break these rules, be it accidentally or deliberately. Their actions could oppose laws such as copyright infringement, trademark infringement and the Privacy Act - all of which an employer would prefer to prevent from occurring. One of the considerable examples however, is when customers’ information is disclosed by insiders on social media platforms.Momentarily excluding the ramifications of disclosure an individual's private information, the provision of misleading information on social media by employees poses a serious risk to a company's integrity as it too is unlawful. As an example, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) discovered that there were several misleading comments on Allergy Pathway’s Facebook wall in August 2009. Consequently, this company and its director were each fined $7 500 due to the failure to remove these comments posted by its clients.[4]
2.0 Social Media Ethics
While these policies and laws attempt to govern and restrict social media users’ behavior, the ethics could also play an important role in social media world. Social media ethics could be defined differently in various countries and cultures, and would be chosen to practice by users of the technology. Therefore, there are a variety of interpretations of these ethics for people using social media to determine what behaviour is acceptable or inappropriate, even if it is not illegal. Cyber bullying could be one of considerable examples of social media ethics.
2.1 What is Cyber Bullying?
Differing from the commonly-accepted definition of bullying involving real life harassment, cyber bullying occurs by using technology to deliberately hurt others by humiliating, harassing, intimidating or threatening another individual/s online, especially on social media platforms. It is not like other forms of real life bullying that is limited to the school setting or office space, and can occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Generally, cyber bullying includes:
2.2 Why Does It Happen?
While an increasing number of people, especially youths, do not take their online behaviors as seriously as their real life actions, some people may exploit social media to cyber bully other online users due to the lack of social media ethics.[6] These bullies may use anonymous accounts to hurt others as their identity is not as easily tracked, where the consequences of doing so are perceived to not be as serious. Irrespective of the bully's opinions, the victims are just as affected as victims of real life bullying, where cyber bullying has led to several suicides such as Tyler Clementi and Phoebe Prince.[7]2.3 Anti-cyberbullying
To prevent cyber bullying, it is essential that the social media community build a code of ethics as well as assisting those suffering from cyber bullying via anti-cyberbullying tools. CyberMentorsis one of useful anti-cyberbullying websites where young people can help and supporting each other online.[8] With the advent of new media and avenues of communication emerges the need for risk-management of such social outlets. The development of a universally-accepted code of ethics stating what is classified as appropriate and inappropriate behaviour is the first step to ensure individuals take ownership for their posts and consider how their actions may affect others.3.0 References
Mayo-Smith, D 2010, “5 steps to a social media policy”, NZ Business, 24, 10, p. 63, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 September 2011.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 2011. “Firm fined for testimonials by Facebook fans and tweeters.” Last modified February 11, 2011. http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/972417/fromItemId/621575
Groc, I 2007, "Taunting with Tech.", PC Magazine, 26, 17, p. 20, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 16 September 2011.
"Back Bully Beaters" 2010, News of the World, p. 66, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 17 September 2011.
4.0 Further reading