Legal Trends in Organizational Online Social Media Use

The growth in the popularity of social networking websites (SNSs) has resulted in many organizations using such platforms for organizational activities, including recruitment, employee selection, employee monitoring, and termination. However, the legality of organizations using social networking for these purposes is unclear. Although many researchers have touched on the potential legal implications of organizations using these tools (see e.g., Brown & Vaughn, 2011), no empirical studies have examined how the court system views their use in organizational settings. Thus, the current study examined federal court cases related to the use of SNSs in various employment practices.