The document outlines five essential things charities need to know about social media, focusing on legal aspects such as intellectual property, data protection, and defamation. It emphasizes the importance of obtaining appropriate rights for content, ensuring proper consent for data usage, and disclosing paid promotions or endorsements. Additionally, it highlights the need for charities to adhere to specific platform guidelines to avoid legal issues.

1. 5 THINGS
What every charity should
know about social media
Vanessa Barnett
Partner, TMT
@vanessabarnett

3. THE LAW (AND OTHER STUFF)
 Mostly old laws, with a bit of the new
 Four key areas of law:
 Intellectual property
 Data protection/privacy
 Defamation/contempt
 Employment
 One key set of terms and conditions (well, sort of)
 Social media platform T+Cs

4. ONE – RESPECT MY AUTHORITY
(INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY)

5. http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/shared/downloads/images/season-14/1403/1403_cartmanJunkieA.jpg

6. Flikr attribution:
naixn

7. Flikr attribution:
grendelkhan

8. Flickr attribution:
p_a_h

9. Getting the right rights in
 Creating new content
 Commercial production
 Assignment always
preferable!
 User generated content
 Assignment unlikely, but very
wide licence
 Employees/consultants
 Using existing third party
content
 Commercial licence
 Content libraries
 Creative Commons
 Be careful licence rights
wide enough
 Exclusive/non-exclusive
 Territory
 Media
 Devices
 Language

10. Copyright myths
 Everything on the Internet is in the public domain, so I can use it
 No, only stuff where copyright has actually expired is in the public domain
 If there’s no copyright notice, I can use it
 No, no notice is needed to get copyright, it just arises and the creators are
protected – notices, these days, are for information
 If I change it, I have not made a copy, so I can use it
 No, that’s still a copy which has been derived from the original, so still an
infringing copy
 If I just copy part of it, it’s not a copy, so I can use it
 No, because a copy can be the whole or a substantial part (and that’s
qualitative – think of the Mona Lisa smile!)
 If I don’t make any money out of it, it’s not commercial, so it’s
permitted
 No, the exceptions which allow use of copyright works without permission
are very narrow (e.g. research, private study, news reporting, etc)

11. The „right‟ to „share‟

12. TWO – DON‟T BE A DATA
DUFFUS

14. Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulations
 Need a positive indication of consent – but that doesn‟t
automatically mean a tick box
 Directive defines „the data subject‟s consent‟ as:
„any freely given specific and informed indication of his wishes by
which the data subject signifies his agreement to personal data
relating to him being processed‟
 ICO read this as some form of communication where the
individual knowingly indicates consent, saying:
“This may involve clicking an icon, sending an email or subscribing to
a service. The crucial consideration is that the individual must fully
understand that by the action in question they will be giving consent.”

15. The „soft‟ opt in – how far can you
stretch it?
 PECR say no need for consent if:
 Obtained details from the intended recipient in the context of a sale
or negotiations for the sale of a product or service AND
 The marketing relates to sender‟s own/similar products or services
AND
 The recipient is given a simple means of refusing the
communications (but an opt-out or otherwise) at data collection and
on every subsequent communication
 So careful with mailing list purchases too!

16. All boils down to this
Tell people what
you are doing with
personal data
Do what you have
told them!

17. THREE – NO SUCH THING
AS #INNOCENT

18. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00320/102030342_Paul_Cham_320099c.jp
g

19. Paul Chambers

20. Sally Bercow
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/twitter-libel-sally-bercow-says-she-has-learned-
the-hard-way-as-she-settles-with-tory-peer-lord-mcalpine-over-libellous-tweet-8630653.html

21. Jordan

24. #ad #spon
 Disclosure of paid promotions or endorsements
 Use ‘#ad’ hashtag or #spon if someone has been paid to
promote your charity
 The position of charity „ambassadors‟ is unclear

25. FOUR – WE ARE ALL IN IT
TOGETHER (UNFORTUNATELY!)

26. Responsibility for employees

27. FIVE – DON‟T FORGET THE
CONTRACT STUFF

28. Common themes for social media
platform T+Cs
 Don‟t spam
 Don‟t bully, intimidate or harrass
 No nudity or pornographic content
 Don‟t infringe or violate rights of third parties (including
copyright!)
 Don‟t publish confidential stuff
 Don‟t associate with us
 Get logos right
simples

29. Facebook specifics
 Promotions
 Facebook Promotions Guidelines – keep it legal and if any
‘gambling’ element, need consent from Facebook
 Ads
 Facebook Pages Terms
 Relevant and appropriate for audience
 Appropriately targeted!
 Data
 Get consent and be transparent
 Cannot use for purpose outside of consents
 No tagging without consent!

30. Twitter specifics
 Don‟t send unsolicited @ replies or mentions
 When you post something on Twitter you grant Twitter a
licence to do what it wants with your content!
 Promoted tweets must be appropriately targeted, comply with
all applicable laws and regulations, and accurately reflect
your brand
 Remember @[your charity] will be responsible for all
promoted content on Twitter on its behalf

31. FINALLY

33. THANK YOU