Hi everyone, I’m looking for any examples of progressive social media policies. I am looking for examples that are not over controlling or invasive of workers private lives outside of work, while also putting into place structures of support for workers who are doxxed or targeted online for the work they do for their employer.
My group/organisation focuses on supporting and upskilling radical and left wing groups in the UK . We have a hierarchical staff structure, with under 20 full time staff. A proposed social media policy came to the staff union for discussion and while good in some areas it was lacking in terms of protection for staff and focused solely on restricting staff. The next steps for the union are to get some good examples to help shape an alternative policy proposal.
no sure that these are that close in what you’re looking for, but I often refer to these 2 examples of how to approach guidelines for using/posting on social media.
Years ago I worked on social media approaches in orgs a lot more (and actually made the doodle that @adrian shared below - here’s the blog that went with it, in case of interest), but haven’t for some time. Mostly spent ages telling orgs not to have social media policies, due to the tendency to make controlling ones (as you’ve highlighted).
That said - I really like the idea of thinking about social media policies as ways to help protect staff that could be targeted for their campaigning/ activism/ organising work - that sounds like a really radical shift (from policing people’s personal accounts and having management breath down everyone’s necks)! I wonder if Open Rights Group might have any good tips on this, as we’ve got their privacy and cookie policy in the library, and imagine they might be thinking about those kinds of questions…
I’m going to be facilitating a process around social media policies with a bunch of arts orgs in a few weeks’ time though and will report back whatever I can, that isn’t confidential.
Thank you @liam and @adrian for the information (apologies for the slow reply I only work part time) I love the flow chart that you created @liam and @adrian shared - it made me laugh!
@liam The blog link is really helpful and I will be sharing that with my union. I have tried to order your ‘anarchist in the boardroom’ book but cant find it on the activedistributionshop website - is it no longer for sale?. I will also contact the open rights group to see if they have any advice.
Happy to share with you anything I end up creating in terms of policy to protect staff and would love to hear about any ideas from the groups you are facilitating
Hi @Kirrin - glad the doodle is still good for a laugh!
Active used to stock the book, but it’s down to a few copies in my house now… can order the e-version on the site with the blog, or DM me and I’ll dig you out a hard copy
Please do share any insights that come up in your own process and I’ll do the same after this workshop at the end of the month.
I just joined RadHR and I’m looking for social media policies that centre staff and ensure that we don’t get doxxed or targeted by trolls; or even if we do, that we have put measures in place to safeguard the staff. Might be a bit odd to ask, but @liam what came out of the process you were involved in last year?
Also, I loved the sketch you had made, I saved it to share with my fellow organisers and comms folks!
Hi Vanessa -
Unfortunately the person who was my contact at the main org facilitating the cross-org social media policy session has moved on. I’ve emailed their director to see if they know what came of it. If I hear back, I’ll definitely post it here!
