Social Media Access May Cause Governance Problems

Gartner claims half of all companies, fearing prosecution, may attempt to block social networking site access

A Gartner report has warned that many organisations could fall foul of governance regulations through offering open access to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Under governance regulations, companies could be called on to provide information stored on these sites under e-discovery requests. Pleas of privacy for these sites is no argument in court, it appears.

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The Social Media Governance: An Ounce of Prevention report concludes that by the end of 2013 half of all companies will have been asked to produce material from social media sites for e-discovery.

Debra Logan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner described the legal landscape around social media as a patchwork. This stems from overlapping, conflicting and contradictory laws and regulations, mixed with processes imposed by national and international legislative and regulatory bodies.

She pointed out that governance rules exist for certain vertical markets, such as the US Securities And Exchange Commission’s regulations for brokers/dealers (SEC Rule 17a-4), but for most markets there are no clear rulings. It is up to individual organisations to decide how to use and govern social media, she said, and pointed out that Gartner does not expect there to be clear guidance coming from the courts or regulators in the near future.

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Source: eweekeurpe.co.uk
By: Eric Doyle