How does Oklahoma law protect an employee’s social media accounts?

Social media has existed long enough to become common in our lives. 

Although it not the only way to use social media, public broadcasting and interaction is the norm for many people (as opposed to say protecting your Twitter account from public consumption).  It is quick and simple for one to broadcast any thought, feeling, question, rant or tangent into publicly-occupied cyberspace.  With the ubiquity of social media, Oklahoma employer and employees are likely to encounter “issues” from the use of social media.    Recognizing this reality, in 2014 the Oklahoma legislature enacted a law to address employer actions regarding personal social media accounts.  The statute is titled § 173.2. Prohibited actions regarding personal social media accounts–Exemptions–. 

Below are some of the actions that an Oklahoma employer is prohibited from taking related to employees’ social media accounts:

2. Require an employee or prospective employee to access the employee’s or prospective employee’s personal online social media account in the presence of the employer in a manner that enables the employer to observe the contents of such accounts if the account’s contents are not available to the general public, except pursuant to an investigation as provided in subsection D of this act;

3. Take retaliatory personnel action that materially and negatively affects the terms and conditions of employment against an employee solely for refusal to give the employer the user name or password to the employee’s personal online social media account; or

You can find the Oklahoma Statute here. As always there are exceptions and qualifications, so if questions arise for you, please feel free to reach out to me.