According to research from an international law firm, more than half of UK firms are now blocking access to social media sites
By Gabe Perna
Research from an international law firm, Fulbright & Jaworski International, indicates that more than 50 percent of UK firms block its employees from using social networking websites. The reason being information from sites such as Facebook are being demanded for regulatory investigations. The 2009 Litigation Trends survey also indicated 46 percent of US firms also block social networking websites.
The data showed that two in five companies (42 percent) block popular websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. 30 percent block business related websites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo. Meanwhile, YouTube is also blocked by a number of respondents (37 percent). The Fulbright study says 18 percent of UK companies have been asked to produce electronic information from such websites as part of proceedings.
“For some businesses, networking sites can provide an efficient platform for keeping up-to-date with the latest developments and maintaining a profile in their industry,” said Melanie Ryan, a Fulbright partner. “For those businesses that block access, such benefits are outweighed by the possible legal risks, including the inadvertent disclosure of confidential or proprietary information and the resulting claims or fines imposed by their regulators - not to mention, the security threat to their IT systems.”
This is the first legal exploration of the impact of a website like Facebook. In terms of time wasting an bandwidth, concerns over Facebook have been widely explored.