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Social media can land you in hot water
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Q: Do posts or tweets carry the same weight as any published material?
A: Posts and tweets are very visible in the online environment. They are easily shared and distributed. You have no control whatsoever about where a post or tweet ends up. You may think you are posting a message in private to a friend, but that friend may repost or retweet it. The rule of thumb is never to post anything that you would not like to see on a billboard over a busy highway because nothing is private on social media.
Even if a post or tweet is deleted immediately it could have still been screen captured in seconds and can be used against you in future. This also applies to messages on applications such as Whatsapp.
Q: When we refer to posts and tweets, do these also include photos, memes and any reposts?
A: Posts include anything you do on your social media accounts, whether it is pictures, messages, or memes. It also includes sharing links and liking posts. Even if you are tagged in a post you can be held accountable.
Q: Do online posts and tweets get monitored?
A: Yes, there is a monitoring agency that monitors the university’s main accounts. The social media officer monitors the institutional accounts and each campus has social media representatives who monitor the campuses’ accounts. People will be caught if they involve themselves in defamatory activities. Nothing that you do online will ever be in secret. Even if the monitoring agencies don’t pick up a specific post or tweet, other staff members will be able to see it and report it.
Q: What are the biggest pitfalls for staff and students when using social media?
A: People don’t always use the discretion and caution they would use in a typical work environment.
Q: What are the NWU’s guidelines for social media use?
A: The social media policy with social media and blogging guidelines will be available by the end of this year. In the meantime, anyone who is considering using any of the NWU’s social media channels should speak with their social media representative for advice and guidelines.
