Personal profile posts on business-oriented Internet sites pose potential problems for organizations regardless of whether they are publicly traded.
Proliferation of employee social media use continues unabated, and, in turn, the desire of organizations to rely on that employee-use to make certain employment-related decisions. Employee use of social media, including on professional business sites such as LinkedIn, generally presents many sensitive and difficult legal issues for organizations. The comments and other posts are intertwined with freedom of speech guarantees in the nation’s Constitution (at least for public employers), employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act, and other federal and state laws and regulations. As a result, these posts aren’t as easily “managed” as those which are purely company-related materials.
