Reputation is Everything

Social Media Workshop

TitleOverview

Social media is ubiquitous – no day can now

pass without our being confronted with it,

either in the newspapers or on our own

screens at home and work

Social media can be a very useful tool for

getting your message out there and even

increasing your revenue

It can also be used in a very detrimental way,

which can bring a charity’s reputation into

disrepute and result in costly legal action.

TitleStem cell donor drive

powered by social media

• More than 10,000 people joined the Anthony

Nolan register in three weeks in January this

year, thanks to the #Match4Lara campaign,

which the charity says has become one of its

biggest ever recruitment drives.

• Lara Casalotti, a 24-year-old from Belsize Park

in London, was diagnosed with acute myeloid

leukaemia just before Christmas and needed to

find a suitable donor by April to save her life.

TitleStem cell donor drive

powered by social media

• After finding out that her brother was, unfortunately,

not a match, the #Match4Lara campaign was

launched, using social media to spread the message

and encouraged people to take a ‘spit test’ and get

their names added to the register of blood cancer

charity Anthony Nolan.

• Support from the likes of JK Rowling, Stephen Fry,

Gareth Bale, Mark Wahlberg and Hugh Laurie

followed on Twitter, helping the campaign quickly

reach out to the masses. Twitter follower numbers

are now approaching 1114 with thousands of

retweets achieved

• Social media can be a powerful tool to raise awareness and for fundraising

• Potential pitfalls

(a) Costs of running such a campaign can be large

– There is not always the return on investment one imagines: most campaigns are not like Anthony Nolan

• one recent report suggested that a social media campaign barely increases the number of donations

• Users can be get social media fatigue and it can have a detrimental effect

Title

(b) More importantly, what if the result is not so positive and becomes a headline like ‘Samaritans Ask College to take down misleading YouTube Video’?

• Unlawful content which is either defamatory, misleading or an incitement to commit a criminal offence can give rise to an action:

– in damages for defamation if it impugns the reputation of a third party

– for harassment (either civil or criminal) if a course of conduct can be shown which causes distress or alarm

=> Severely damaging from a reputational point of view if it hits the media (including social media)

TitleCharities at risk of online

extortion demands

• a number of businesses throughout the UK have received

online extortion demands from a group calling themselves

‘RepKiller Team’

• the group have sent emails demanding payment of

between £300 – £500 in Bitcoins [a form of digital or

‘crypto’ currency] by a certain date and time

• if their demand is not met, they have threatened to launch

a cyber-attack against the organisation and damage its

reputation by automating hundreds of negative reviews

online

• the demand states that once their actions have started,

they cannot be undone

Title

• All arises from report in March by Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting centre.

• Clearly a real life, 21st century threat

• Advice from Fraud Office

– NOT meet their demands by paying the ransom

– make a report to Action Fraud [on 0300 123 2040 or via their website actionfraud.police.uk]

– retain the original emails (with headers)

– make a note of any attack, recording all times, type and content of the contact

Title

• Brings home importance of having and maintaining effective online security

• Check ISO credentials of your security provider

• Find a reputable supplier if none

• DPA 7th Principle:

– “Appropriate technical and organisational measures must be put in place to guard against loss, damage or unauthorised access to personal data.”

• Failure to do so, resulting in a security breach =>

– fine up to £500K * (up to 4% global turnover under draft EU Data Protection Regulation) (in force 2018)

– Civil actions by aggrieved data subjects

TitleCharities need to ‘get real’

about cyber security

• Businesses – including charities – are not taking cyber

security seriously enough, the IoD has warned.

• Under a third (28%) of cyber attacks are being reported

to the police, acc. to a new report, Cyber Security:

Underpinning the Digital Economy. The IoD also found

that cos were keeping quiet even though nearly half (49

%) of attacks resulted in interruption of business

operations.

• The scale of the threat should not be underestimated,

the business group added, with over seven in ten firms

saying they had been sent bogus invoices via email.

Title

Whilst nine in ten business leaders said that

cyber security was important

only around half (57 per cent) had a

formal strategy in place to protect

themselves; and

just a fifth (20 per cent) held insurance

against an attack.

Title

• Brings home importance of having and maintaining effective online security

• Check ISO credentials of your security provider

• Find a reputable supplier if none

• DPA 7th Principle:

– “Appropriate technical and organisational measures must be put in place to guard against loss, damage or unauthorised access to personal data.”

• Failure to do so, resulting in a data breach, means

– fine up to £500K (4% global annual turnover under draft Data Protection Regulation) (in force 2018)

– Civil actions by aggrieved data subjects

TitleSamaritans asks college to take down misleading YouTube video

• Samaritans have asked for a film to be removed from YouTube which appeared to be a campaign video for the charity but actually went against media guidelines by showing a suicide attempt.

• Samaritans said it was not associated with the film despite it using the charity’s branding and featuring its UK phone number. It was, in fact, created by students at the Central St Martins School. Since being published in May it has racked up over 18,000 views.

Title

• Brings home the message of potentially damaging effect of social media

• Content which is either defamatory, misleading or an incitement to commit a criminal act, can give rise to:

– An action in damages for defamation if it impugns the reputation of a third party

– Passing off where misrepresentation causes actual damage to goodwill of trader (here Samaritans)

– trade mark infringement if there is misuse of brand in course of trade (so arguably none here)

Title

• Where content does fall within one of above categories

– Most portals have policies entitling a user to get material taken down if breach of its terms (take down notice) BUT

– Many based in California and will refuse on basis of ‘free speech’

– Having a registered trade mark will ensure likely action taken where brand has been misused (esp. where no action for trade mark infringement possible).

Moral of story:

– Keep eye on your brand by using watch service

– Register trade mark in order to take effective action against misuse

WAM teams with Twitter to address

gender harassment

• Non-profit organisation, Women, Action and

Media is working with Twitter to launch a tool

that lets people report abuse in a bid to clamp

down on harassment against women.

• Twitter users will be able to fill in a form from

WAM containing details of gender-related

harassment and the charity will check it out

• if appropriate, will escalate the complaint to

Twitter within 24 hours.

Title

Any kind of harassment on social media is potentially both a criminal and civil offence

Where someone is subjected to a course of conduct that causes them distress or alarm...

....this may give rise to cause of action for harassment

Covers verbal harassment, as well as stalking or physical acts, so online activities, such as cyber-bullying, are caught.

“Course of conduct" must cause fear or distress, which a reasonable person would think amounts to harassment.

There must be at least two instances, which must be in sequence, as opposed to distinct and distant events.

Title

• Where content does border on, or amounts

to, harassment:

– Most portals have policies entitling user to get

it taken down if terms of use breached

– Many, however, based in California and will

refuse on basis of ‘free speech’

– Showing the matter has been reported to the

police (crime ref. no.) or lawyers are involved

(get them to write to portal) may help in

achieving aim