Banning Employees from MySpace

You can certainly ban employees from using MySpace and Facebook at work, but what about when they’re off-duty? That’s going too far – likely an invasion of privacy.

What about this question: Can you discipline or fire an employee for posting something on the Internet that reflects negatively on their jobs? As I’ve noted in a previous post about teachers, I think the answer is yes.

Consider the recent situation of a police officer whose MySpace posting resulted in a person arrested by the officer being found not guilty. The day before the trial, the officer posted that he was in a “devious” mood. Previously, the officer had posted criticism of another officer for punching a handcuffed man. He also wrote: “If he wanted to tune him up some, he should have delayed cuffing him. If you were going to hit a cuffed suspect, at least get your money’s worth.” He also wrote this on his Facebook page: “[I'm] watching Training Day to brush up on proper police procedure.” In that movie, Denzel Washington played a police detective who pillaged LA.

Since the alleged criminal claimed that the police officer, a body builder who had been disciplined for using steroids, beat him up during the arrest and planted a gun on him, the officer’s own words in cyberspace gave the jury evidence that caused reasonable doubt and resulted in an acquittal. The officer is now masking his identity on the Web.

Banning employees from using the Internet — period — won’t fly. But having a policy that says employees can be disciplined or fired if they use the Web via MySpace or Facebook in a way that adversely impacts their jobs should be OK.