One of the interesting things about social media is that it is a means that can provide a person with moments of hope, as well as moments of discouragement. Insurance brokers in Canada are considering creating insurance coverage that would protect a person, or a company, from fallout due to nasty posts and tweets. Perhaps it is time for this kind of insurance to exist.
It can be incredibly tempting to use Facebook or Twitter to say exactly what you are feeling about a specific person or a particular corporation. There are a lot of people who use Twitter to express nearly every thought that crosses their mind. Plenty of people have used Facebook to write long, detailed, posts about something significant that happened to them.
Most of the time, doing these kinds of activities is entirely harmless. Some might Tweet that they had a really good lunch, and attach a photo of the food they ate. A person might use Facebook to describe how happy the person is about the great weather are experiencing today.
However, when someone uses Twitter or Facebook, (or both), to vent their anger or frustration about something, then things can quickly spin out of control. Any one of us could be targeted by someone whom we are connected to through social media who wishes to do us harm. It’s the modern version of children in the school yard, calling people nasty names. Just like on the playground, a person can be picked on through Twitter or Facebook for no reason at all, and through nothing that they actually said, did, or neglected to say or do.
Right now, there really isn’t any insurance that can protect a person, or a corporation, from a verbal attack that someone launches through Twitter, Facebook, or any other form of social media. A company called Kiln, which is a subsidiary of Lloyd’s of London, notes that insurance brokers in Canada have started working on developing insurance coverage that would provide protection for “unruly posts”.
This kind of insurance would primarily be used by businesses, who feel that someone’s inappropriate tweet or post has brought significant negative implications to their company or brand. If this works well in Canada, it might make insurance companies in the United States consider creating a similar form of insurance.
If I am understanding this correctly, this is not the type of insurance that would be used to prevent people from expressing an appropriate opinion about the quality of product, or level of customer service, that a particular company provides. This is more about the comments expressed by an employee about his or her coworkers, boss, or employment situation on Twitter or Facebook.
It would be fairly safe for a frustrated person to go on Twitter and say : “My boss is as dumb as a box of hammers!”. However, if you later decide to name your boss, and say exactly where you work, this is problematic. The business you named may feel that your tweet has cost them the ability to attract potential employees, or that it could harm their profits. Theoretically, this would be where the insurance would be useful.
Image by Steve Ryan on Flickr