John Swinson explains:
If, for example, a user claimed that Smirnoff vodka was the purest Russian vodka or it could lead to success with women, the company would be liable on multiple counts. Smirnoff is Australian not Russian. So that is false. It may not be the purest so that could also be misleading. And to imply that you would have greater success with girls would contravene the advertising codes.I for one am shocked (not just because Smirnoff is not Russian nor a good wingman), but because in some ways this requires brands to apply some sort of censorship to their social media. On the other hand, I can also understand that the burden of providing accurate product information should fall on the shoulders of the owner of the social media asset.
While the ruling happened in Australia, Common Law dictates that it will apply world wide, as anything posted in, say, NYC can be seen in Australia.
So please, be careful how you comment on this post...I will probably not be checking...
2 comments:
I actually agree with the ruling. If a company has a facebook page I think they should be responsible for monitoring the content to make sure it is appropriate and also that it is not misleading. However, I do not always think that content posted should be removed. But it should be clarified with a follow-up comment to correct the inaccuracies. Likewise, if a negative comment is posted I think it should be left there. But the company should have the chance to refute the comment with additional postings.
This is a dangerous ruling. Social media is exploding for companies, and now even the more reluctant and conservative companies are setting up facebook pages. With a ruling like this, it could really reverse this trend of it being a necessity to have a facebook presence. The cost involved to monitor the posts and pass everything by the legal department along with any potential lawsuits could outweigh the benefits (which are still hard to measure) of hosting a facebook page. I don't think companies should be responsible for what customers say. Facebook posts are just the modern day way of saying something out loud. Companies are not held responsible for incorrect statements about their products during verbal human conversations. The same should apply for social media comments. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact this has on social media strategies.
Post a Comment