By Sruthijith KK @sruthijith
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The Times of
India is India's largest selling English newspaper. Reuters/Anindito Mukherjee
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The Times of India issued a new social
media policy on Wednesday, a day after Quartz reported on a bizarre
new contract that would have forced journalists to establish official
accounts, hand over passwords, and allow the employer to post on their behalf.
The bottom line: India’s largest media
company isn’t actually changing much. A copy of the new contract
circulated among employees on the night of Aug. 27 and has been reviewed
by Quartz. While a lot of the language changed from legalese to plainer
speak, the policy retains most of the controversial clauses, including the
one that encourages employees to convert their personal social media accounts
to official ones and handover passwords to the company.
There are two main changes. An earlier
clause that said the company could continue to post updates from an employee’s
account even after they leave, has been removed. Secondly, the clause that
earlier prohibited an employee from posting news links on her personal social
media account has now become more ambivalent. It states:
If you are planning to maintain two
user accounts, then the company expects that all content related to your
primary role at BCCL should be solely posted on your Company User Account,
though it can be re-tweeted/shared from your Personal User Account.
It is not clear whether that means
journalists can or cannot post news and related links on their personal
account. But they can retweet them off the official accounts. Adding to
confusion, the company said it strongly encourages staffers to maintain one
account, which by default, becomes the official account.
Initially, a contract circulated
among journalists on 14 August. Many journalists
sought further clarification. In response to Quartz’s story this
week, Satyan Gajwani, the CEO of Times Internet Ltd and the
son-in-law of Times Group vice chairman Samir Jain, tweeted that a new
policy was being put in place with “major changes.”
He did not respond to a direct message
on Twitter late on Wednesday night seeking comment. A BCCL spokesperson
did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The Times of India’s new document
assures employees it intends to expand its social media presence. So all
journalists are expected, as part of their duties at Bennett, Coleman & Co
Ltd, as the parent company is known, to create a company user account (distinct
from a personal user account) on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
The display
name of these accounts should be the name of the employee, suffixed with the
brand she works for. So if Paul worked for Times of India, his company Twitter
id would be @PaulTOI. If he worked for Times Now, it would be @PaulTimesNow
The new policy says employees are free
to keep a separate personal social media account, but strongly encourages them
to not do that. The official policy offers three reasons
why employees should not hold personal social media accounts:
The Company would prefer that users
maintain a single account, to keep a genuine and honest approach to the
consumer at large, and frankly, because it’s easier to manage. But it’s up to
you to decide what you prefer. If you prefer to keep separate accounts, please
inform your brand representative of your personal accounts’ usernames. But it
will be in YOUR interest to keep One User Account.
As before, personal social media
accounts should be disclosed to the company.
When staffers leave the company,
they can drop the name of their employer and retain the company user
account. BCCL will continue to own rights to the material posted
while they were employed though.
And material that is posted from the
company user account shall be along the lines of “the views published by
the respective Editor/Newspaper you work for and compliment/supplement the
news/story as developed in the said Newspaper.”
The new contract, like the old one,
offers employees the option of converting their existing personal social media
accounts into company accounts. Irrespective of whether it is a converted
account or a new account, BCCL will have access to the passwords to the company
accounts at all times and can post any material they deem fit. Followers will
have no way of telling whether a tweet by @PaulTOI has been posted by him or a company
executive or indeed an advertiser. Because the contract says the company
can post “news or other material” to these accounts at its sole discretion.
If needed, Company may request access
Password(s), for the Company User Account, which shall be used by you on behalf
of the Company to make posts. Company retains administration rights of the
Company User Account, which shall be made accessible to the Company on demand
for fulfilling any statutory obligations/compliance of laws/or otherwise. It is
understood that sharing of such details of the Company User Account shall be an
integral part of your contract with the Company and shall be disclosed and
shared with the Company at any time.
The Company may upload news or other
material on the Company User Account through any means, including automated
upload streams, at its sole discretion, during your Contract with the Company.
From the examples cited in the
contract, the policy seems applicable to employees of Times of India,
Economic Times, Navbharat Times, Mumbai Mirror, Radio Mirchi, Indiatimes, Times
Now and ET Now. These are some of India’s leading media brands and together
employ hundreds of journalists, including many who are prominent voices on
Twitter.
Through its Times Local Partners unit,
Times Internet has brought a number of global digital media brands to India,
including Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Business Insider, Techradar, and most recently,
Huffington Post.
Like in the previous contract, the
company claims unhindered access to all followers/friends of company user
accounts. Any future revenue from such accounts shall belong solely to the
company.
Toward the end, the contract offers a
hat-tip to the evolving nature of social media, and the necessity to
change with the times:
As social media evolves, this policy
too will evolve and basis feedback and interaction, we will continue to refine
it.
Source: http://qz.com
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