REGINA – Trade deadline day in the National Hockey League always blows up social media, but this year the attention was highly controversial.
A Toronto Maple Leaf fan tweeted that one player had slept with another’s wife, instigating a hail-storm of comments after the statement was shown live on TSN’s TradeCentre.
TSN has since apologized for its mistake and the fan said it was all a joke.
According to lawyer Marc Kelly, a partner at Kanuka Thuringer LLP, admitting your mistake usually makes it go away.
“Usually when people see an apology, that’s enough for them,” he said.
But in this case, lawsuits are being threatened on behalf of the affected players.
Alec Couros, a media professor at the University of Regina, said the fan can be held responsible for his tweet.
“When you do put something out on social media, you are liable for those words,” he said.
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While a financial blow is never good, Cuoros noted there is one thing that’s far worse: “The biggest thing really is the reputational damage.”
Inappropriate comments can follow you for a lifetime and even affect your job.
Kelly has an interest in social media and employability.
“Depending on how detrimental that tweet is to either you or your employer, it could be anything from a reprimand to termination,” he said.
And while many feel safe after adding the line ‘thoughts expressed are my own’ or something similar in their bio, it doesn’t necessarily protect you from repercussions.
“You are going to be a reflection on your employer whether you like it or not,” he said.
That doesn’t mean employers are absolved of responsibility though.
“If you really want to ensure that as an employer, you’re protected, or that you’ve got the basis to make certain decisions about your employees based on their social media, it’s really important to have a social media policy in place.”
That should include three basic things: what the company considers social media to be, when employees are expected to follow corporate guidelines and the potential consequences of a slip up.
At the end of the day, those slip ups are handled differently by each professional athlete.
Former Saskatchewan Roughrider, Belton Johnson, says he would try and be a southern gentleman:
“I would invite the fans out for coffee or lunch to figure out what’s going on with them. Another way to handle that is to ignore it. Simply ignore it,” he said. “You have got to play your game. There’s bigger things than what somebody could say on social media.”
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