An amendment to Oregon’s previous social media law will go into effect January 1, 2016. It makes it unlawful for employers to do any of the following:
- Require or request that an employee or an applicant establish or maintain a personal social media account.
- Require that an employee or applicant authorize the employer to advertise on a personal social media account.
- Take or threaten to take any adverse action against an employee for refusing to establish or maintain a personal social media account.
As before, employers may not require or request that an employee disclose any personal social media user names or passwords. As before, if employers need to conduct an investigation, they may require an employee to share content that has been reported to the employer and that is necessary for the employer to make a factual determination about the matter under investigation.