Every so often I see a name pop up on Facebook that makes me wonder who the hell I’m friends with, but on closer inspection is a buddy who has changed their name to avoid pesky friend requests from work colleagues.

Sure that might be a necessary evil but many social media users simply assume their private account is just that – private. They would be very wrong, something attorney Wilmari Strachan laid bare on Fin24:

“There are two problems with this line of thinking. One: The network effect. It may be a private thought, but I share it with my 100 friends, who ‘like’ my post, so their 100 friends can now see it and then their 100 friends and soon a million people saw my ‘private thought’, which is now not so private anymore.

“Two: Association. As a director of a company (or even an employee) I am inevitably linked to the image of that company. I can state ‘this is my personal views’, but if I make a controversial statement, does it not indicate the mentality of the people that work at or manage the company that appointed me?”

Think of the controversy Investec had to deal with after one of their employees forgot to use his brain (or decency) on social media.

How about those lads at Hilton with their posting on a private Instagram account? That kind of garbage will always see the light of day, it doesn’t matter how many privacy boxes you think you’ve ticked.

The repercussions could be more than angry Twitter hashtags as well:

In terms of South African law, an employee that expresses opinions on social media may be subject to both damages claims from the employer, as well as dismissal, said specialist technology attorney Russel Luck…

If you are fired for utterances on social media, it is unlikely that you could get your job back. The legal relationship between employer and employee is based on good faith, said Luck.

“An employee-employer relationship is based on uberrima fides the utmost good faith. Where the trust relationship is broken, the employee may be dismissed. If the dismissal was found to be wrongful, the employee cannot ask for their job back and force the employer to re-employ them. They can get the employer to pay damages to them.”

Throwing that ‘all views are my own’ into your Twitter bio won’t cover you mate, best you think before you post. Rub someone up the wrong way and even your most locked down account is one screenshot from courting disaster…

[source:fin24]