ABC confusion over its social media policy continues as chair Kim Williams voices concerns

Chair Kim Williams has warned of the dangers of ABC staff using social media but its policy has been criticised for remaining unclear.

The ABC’s contentious social media policy is again under scrutiny after the new chair Kim Williams offered a view on staff members’ use of online platforms that conflicts with the broadcaster’s existing guidelines.

The ABC’s social media policy says that a “worker’s personal social media activity is not considered ABC content”.

Last week, the ABC responded to a Senate estimates’ question on notice about employees’ use of social media and reinforced that staff used any platforms “at the worker’s own risk”.

“The activity is not subject to the editorial policies and the ABC does not take editorial responsibility for it,” the ABC’s response said.

But Mr Williams, who has been the chair of the organisation for just over a month, has voiced a different view.

Last month he told the Fourth Estate podcast with host Monica ­Attard that he had “a deep and abiding and growing scepticism about the value of social media” and was concerned about staff posting their views online, regardless of whether the public broadcaster took responsibility or not.

“I have grave difficulty with journalists being a respondent to what the public wants to hear,” he said on the podcast.

Mr Williams said if staff weren’t impartial they should leave the organisation.

ABC managing director David Anderson. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman.

Although the ABC states it has no editorial responsibility for social media posts by staff, its actual social media policy states that workers must abide by standards, including that they do not damage the ABC’s reputation for impartiality and independence, do not mix the professional and the personal in ways likely to bring the ABC into disrepute and do not imply ABC endorsement of their personal views. Mr Williams was contacted by The Australian about the ABC’s latest comments about its policy, asking whether the broadcaster’s social media rules needed to be clearer. He did not respond.

Coalition senator Sarah Henderson, who quizzed ABC managing director David Anderson about social media policies at the ABC at the last Senate estimates hearing for the environment and communications committee in February, said the ABC’s social media policy remained “a dog’s breakfast”.

“As I have consistently argued, the ABC’s social media policy is woefully inadequate and undermines the national broadcaster’s statutory obligation to disseminate news and information accurately and impartially,” she said.

“Under their terms of employment, ABC staff should be prohibited from publishing commen­tary, on any platform, unless it is approved in accordance with ABC editorial policies.”

ABC journalist Louise Milligan.

In recent years the ABC has updated its social media policy numerous times after being hit by multiple social media scandals, including some involving Four Corners’ reporter Louise Milligan, who on her own social media account on X (formerly Twitter) falsely accused former Liberal MP Andrew Laming of upskirting a woman. In total the ABC spent more than $200,000 on the matter, picking up Milligan’s legal costs and paying Dr Laming $70,000 in damages.

More recently the ABC became embroiled in a dispute with former fill-in ABC Sydney radio host Antoinette Lattouf, who took the broadcaster to the Federal Court after claiming she was unlawfully terminated from her role. Her sacking came after she shared a post on her Instagram account that read: “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza.”