Social Media and The Law

Is your social media marketing breaking the law? Dom Sparkes, MD Managing social media 24/7

1,000,000 ’s messages moderated
60 live clients
50 platforms
15 languages
14 years worth of moderation in 2009 alone
We spend our time managing social media…
120+ social network profiles
1,000 ’s conversations tracked
100,000 ’s mentions monitored
365 / 24 / 7

Since 2003, brands have entrusted their reputation to Tempero…

Is your Social Media Marketing breaking the law?
Our survey of 200 senior execs found 81% rated their knowledge of law regulating online activity non-existent
Case law is thin on the ground
Some simple measures can help protect your brand
You don’t have to spend a fortune
Full UGC & the law guide is available to download from
tempero.co.uk
Slides are available from me, dominic.sparkes@tempero.co.uk
Oh, and I’m not a lawyer so the explanations will be brief!

What is the greater risk?

Libel What is it? “ Any statement which hurts an individual’s reputation.” 2008 Research by YouGov found three quarters of internet users who comment online realise they could be breaking libel laws. What’s the risk? You may be seen in law as a Publisher & Editor The website, ISP, and writer can potentially all be sued An audience of one is enough Someone else published it first is not a defence.

Libel How to mitigate the risk Ironically, moderating can potentially increase the risk At the same time, Danvers Baillieu, Associate at Winston Strawn says… “ If you edit or run a group or community, even if you're not responsible for the hosting of content (such as a Flickr group), then choosing not to exercise control and ignoring requests to remove defamatory or illegal content would not be a defence to any claims brought against you.” Have a clear complaints policy and procedure Be prompt in removing any material that provokes a complaint Provide clear guidance and 'rules of play' to discourage defamation by users

Contempt of court What is it? When a court’s authority is not upheld, such as disobeying a court order, that action is held as contempt of court. Importantly for UGC, Contempt of court applies equally to content published by professional writers and the general public. What’s the risk? We see messages that in are in contempt daily Users often don’t realise they are in contempt of court Some purposefully try to publish information about live cases

Contempt of court How to mitigate the risk The good news… If you’re unaware of content in contempt of court you may be protected But - You must have a way of acting upon reports Make sure channels of communication from users are monitored. In 2001 ISP Demon Internet successfully argued they could not be held in contempt Previously Demon had been the first ISP sued for being too slow to remove defamatory comments

Copyright What is it? Intellectual Property is the ‘creations of the mind’ - whether industrial property (trademarks, patents and industrial designs) or Copyright (artistic and literary works).” What’s the risk? Copyright protection is automatic. No contract needed Video, brands or trademark characters as avatars risk areas Users will have copyright over original content EU E-Commerce Directive may protect you Quality, not the quantity is looked at in court, e.g. Individual tweets are not too short to infringe copyright

Copyright How to mitigate the risk Have lawyers create your Terms of Use Ensure users accept the terms Make sure users know the details of any license Act promptly to take down any potentially infringing material as soon as you hear about it Take care when using content under Creative Commons – it’s not a license to use everything for free

Some recommendations… Carry out a risk assessment to evaluate the potential issues Create your own internal guidelines for what is and isn’t acceptable – keeping the (fuzzy) law in mind Create and publish clear, non legalese terms & conditions so your users know the rules Implement a robust notice and take-down procedure - robust means it must stand up to scrutiny and actually work! Encourage users to highlight inappropriate material Don’t over moderate – you’ll kill your community

Thank you for your time The full UGC & The Law e-book can be found at: www.tempero.co.uk For further information please contact: dominic.sparkes@tempero.co.uk www.tempero.co.uk 020 7636 1200

Social Media and The Law

by Our Social Times on Jun 21, 2010

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Social Media and The Law — Presentation Transcript