There’s a lot of play being given to the term “social media” in the news these days. According to Wikipedia, social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. I’m not a psychiatrist, but I’m guessing that part of the reason that there’s this trend toward “sharing” is that living in a digital world can be extremely isolating. You no longer need a storefront to conduct business; you can earn money just as easily sitting at home alone in your pj’s and bunny slippers. A business team can “meet” via video link; introductions to people are made via email. But we humans are largely social creatures, and need interaction. Ergo, the proliferation of ways to share; video sharing (YouTube), photo sharing (Flickr), opinion sharing (blogs), and business network sharing (LinkedIn), among so many others. It’s easy to get lost in the digital universe. With the latest website and blog counts in the tens of millions, if a person blogs in the digital forest and no one comments, do you exist?
Business blogging is not easily pigeonholed. More casual than traditional news reporting, yet not as “out there” as a personal-blog-gone-wild, business blogs occupy a not-quite-defined legal space. Laws are developing alongside the very blogging that inspires it. Some laws already apply in non-blog contexts, for example, don’t disclose another’s trade secrets; bad-mouthing the boss is not a good idea; trumping up unfounded claims against a competitor will get you in trouble. If you are blogging for your business (that is, either publishing your own blog or posting comments on someone else’s), what, briefly, are some of the legal issues that this brave new world of blogging raises?
1. Defamation and libel. Remember when your mother told you to watch your language? And think before you speak? This is one area where being incendiary or flippant in order to get noticed in the blogosphere can garner you the wrong kind of attention. Defamation (called libel, if in writing; slander, if verbal) is the expression of false statements concerning another that cause harm to that person’s reputation. Statements regarding a person’s trade or business can render you particularly vulnerable to a defamation suit. Although truth is a defense, and you do have some leeway for expressing your opinion, it may not make good business sense to push the “free speech” envelope for the sake of principle.
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