Social media can cost you your job, warns expert
‘Pause before you post’, it may save you your job. That’s the opinion of Social Media Law expert, Verlie Oosthuizen.
Oosthuizen, who heads up the Social Media Law Department at Shepstone and Wylie, says in South Africa certain rights are protected by the Constitution such as the right to freedom of expression but there are limits.
Oosthuizen says posting racist comments using hate speech or inciting violence on social media can lead to civil liability in terms of certain statutes.
"In terms of freedom of speech, people have to be careful to say something particularly rude on Facebook. You can't hide behind that as a defence.
"Your freedom of speech is quite limited especially if you are employed because you are subject to your company's rules and regulations and their reputation.
"It's very unlikely that you going to be able to sustain a defence of it is my freedom of expression, my freedom of speech," she said.
(File photo: Gallo Images)