Examine and understand how social media and legal or ethical issues.
Examine and understand how social media and legal
Goal: The goal is to examine and understand how social media and legal/ethical issues can become entangled.
Overview
Social media is communication through websites and other online platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn) that are used by large groups of people to share information, develop social and professional contacts, and promote business.
ASHA encourages its members and certificate holders to engage in the discussion and exchange about controversial audiology and speech-language pathology topics. Unfortunately, colleagues sometimes post inflammatory comments on group Facebook pages, listservs, bulletin boards, and other online platforms. ASHA urges its members and certificate holders to exercise good judgment by avoiding personal attacks against others while using social media. Consult the ASHA Civility Digital Toolkit to learn what you and ASHA can do together to promote civility in the professions.
Under some circumstances, the inappropriate use of social media may lead to ethical violations under the Code. Examples of such violations include (a) posting distinctive personal information about your clients or research subjects that breaches confidentiality and (b) misrepresenting to the public the services you provide, the products you sell, or your level of expertise. The posting of insulting or offensive opinions, including writing such remarks in documents, usually does not violate the Code, even though doing so fails to engage in civil discourse. If such remarks are determined to constitute defamation, then posting them would be considered a violation of the Code.
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