818.501.4343February 4, 2026
Employee social media accounts pose several dangers to employers. Posts by anyone, from executives to entry-level workers, can disclose your secrets, tarnish your reputation, or even expose you to lawsuits and regulatory enforcement actions.
An employer defense lawyer can help you prepare a comprehensive social media policy to proactively avoid hiring risky employees. Moreover, your policy can guide your response when employees’ posts threaten your company’s interests.
Collaborate With Your Employer Defense Lawyer to Develop a Social Media and Online Complaint Policy
The role of human resources is not necessarily to design the details of your company’s social media strategy. Instead, your role is to protect your employer’s interests from the risks posed by social media.
Social media posts are mostly unmoderated. Your workers and potential hires will post almost anything, from unpopular opinions to off-color jokes. However, you must set the line where their posts interfere with your company’s interests. Moreover, you need a plan for dealing with the poster and their posts that complies with California law.
Issues Employers Should Address When Creating Social Media Policies
Social media posts have some unique characteristics that can make quick action necessary. First, social media posts can go viral within minutes of being posted. The damage to your company could explode in magnitude almost immediately.
Second, social media networks have a worldwide reach. Even if a post has no immediate effect in the U.S., it may cause legal or reputational problems for your company in other jurisdictions.
At the same time, foreign jurisdictions might also protect whistleblowers and critics, forcing you to accept some level of legitimate criticisms in your workers’ social media posts.
Third, social media posts can lie dormant until they explode weeks, months, or years later. You might not even realize that your new CEO posted something untoward three years ago that only emerged upon their appointment by the board.
Fourth, people often post mindlessly. They repost other people’s content with a single click. They say things on the spur of the moment without thinking about the long-term consequences they may face.
All of these factors mean that you and your employer defense lawyer must be creative and prescient in creating a comprehensive social media policy to address as many risky scenarios as possible. You may need to spring into action quickly to contain the damage from problematic posts.
Screening Employee Candidates for Problem Social Media Activity
You should determine the extent to which you will screen the social media accounts of job candidates. You will focus your reviews on publicly available posts because you risk violating data privacy laws if you attempt to use technology or deception to access private posts.
Moreover, you potentially give your company a defense against complaints if you avoid looking into a candidate’s social media accounts.
An exception applies to executives. You can include a clause in their employment contracts giving your HR department the authority to review all social media posts. You can also include a term allowing you to terminate the executive if they conceal any social media accounts from your review.
As you review social media accounts during the hiring process, you should separate your social media review team from your hiring team. You do not want to prejudice your review team with a positive hiring decision and vice versa. Instead, you want two independent decisions. If the candidate passes both reviews, you can offer them a position.
Setting Guidelines for Posts on the Company Social Media Account
Your company’s social media account can be used for many purposes. The content strategy will likely be defined by your marketing department rather than your HR department.
However, you will want to define who can access the social media accounts and how you will secure the passwords necessary to use them. You should also have a redundancy plan, so your business does not get locked out of its accounts if the person controlling them is unavailable, sick, or terminated.
Responding to Complaints and Dealing With Illegal or Problematic Social Media Posts
Social media policies should address how complaints will be received, investigated, and acted upon. In other words, you should have a process in place so that any complaints can be acted upon promptly.
You and your employer defense lawyer should define the types of posts that you can lawfully act upon. For example, you can always control posts made to your company’s official accounts.
However, you do not have the same latitude when it comes to the accounts of your board members, executives, and employees. California law protects certain types of speech, including whistleblower complaints and political activity.
On the other hand, you may have an obligation to act on employee posts that harass, discriminate against, or create a hostile work environment for one of your employees.
Disciplining Employees for Social Media Activity
You will also need your employer defense lawyer to assist you in determining when you can or cannot discipline employees for social media posts. These decisions are critically important because firing an employee for protected posts, such as political activity, could result in a wrongful termination lawsuit.
Similarly, terminating, suspending, demoting, or taking other acts against a worker for making a whistleblower post could trigger a retaliation lawsuit.
Not acting in certain situations can also expose you to litigation. If you do not stop an employee from bullying another employee online due to race, sex, or another protected classification, your company might bear the blame for their discriminatory conduct.
Since these decisions can be so consequential, you should consider involving your outside employment law firm in your decision-making.
Work With an Employment Law Attorney to Craft Your Customized Social Media Policy
Social media poses many risks and challenges to employers. The content of posts outside of your company’s control can still expose it to ridicule or even litigation. Working with an employer defense attorney can help you develop a comprehensive and forward-looking policy to manage your company’s social media risks.
If you’re worried about the impact social media could have on your business, we’re here to help. At Pearlman, Brown & Wax, LLP, we can work with you to create a social media policy that protects your company while keeping you compliant with California law. Let’s make sure you’re ready for any situation. Reach out today for a consultation and let’s start protecting your business together.