GUEST POST – from my partner, Andrew Friedman:
College football’s most recent Heisman winner, Kyler Murray from Oklahoma, had to respond to his homophobic slurs on Twitter mere hours after receiving the award. Murray is a professional-caliber athlete in football and baseball, on the cusp of being a very public figure. The tweets in question dated to when the now-21 year old Murray was 14 or 15. https://lnkd.in/epd_Y4u My thought: where were his agents/advisors?
This is nothing new. A number of professional baseball players and actors have been ‘outed’ for misguided statements in their past, usually on Twitter. https://lnkd.in/ewprSAz They presumably have advisors or mentors who should have suggested they clear their social media history, or better yet, to be careful about what they posted in the first place.
Businesses have other concerns about social media – as grist for employment lawsuit discovery, as a portal for viruses or malware, as a time-wasting extracurricular activity during the work day, and as a potential source of reputational harm for the company. Every business should have and enforce a social media policy; Shulman Rogers advises clients on social media compliance. https://lnkd.in/eh4Ztv5
Contact info: Meredith S. Campbell Chair, Employment and Labor Group, Shulman Rogers mcampbell@shulmanrogers.com | T 301.255.0550 | F 301.230.2891
