FINRA Issues Regulatory Notice 11-39: Social Media Websites and the Use of Personal Devices for Business Communications
In August 2011, FINRA, the self-regulatory agency of the securities industry, issued Regulatory Notice 11-39, offering additional guidance concerning the use of social media and supplementing its first notice on the subject–Regulatory Notice 10-06, issued in January 2010. Notice 11-39 focuses on issues relating to FINRA members’ use of social media, including record-keeping, supervision and responding to third-party posts and links. The Notice includes 14 “Q&As,” which provide instruction on the practical application of a firm’s and “associated person’s” (i.e., FINRA members) obligations under applicable laws and regulations when it comes to social media. With respect to record-keeping requirements, social media websites raise new complications because member firms do not themselves typically sponsor or host the content on those websites. The Notice, however, clarifies that record retention requirements continue to apply to content on social media sites and that the controlling question is whether the communications on those sites relate to the firm’s “business as such.” Any business communication made via Facebook, for example, must be “retained, retrievable and supervised.”