Ever so often, some incident or the other reminds us how regulatory authorities are in a dire need to update themselves in light of the changing trends. A case in point: Netflix CEO recently posted his company’s milestones on Facebook. The Securities and Exchange Commission thinks that is inappropriate and has sent him a Wells Notice.
What is even more interesting is the fact that Reed Hastings, Netflix’s CEO, didn’t even post any financial results on the social network. Rather, he simply shared with his 200,000 or so followers that Netflix users had watched more than 1 billion hours of content using Netflix’s streaming service.
SEC’s primary objection to this was that any such information must be revealed ‘through a press release on a widely disseminated news or wire service, or by any other non-exclusionary method that provides broad public access.’
Hastings, on the other hand, has responded by saying that he hasn’t done anything wrong by sharing a milestone of his company with his Facebook followers. According to him, “I wasn’t setting out to set an example. I was sharing something to these 200,000 people [who follow his Facebook feed]. I’m not going to back down and say it’s inappropriate. I think it’s perfectly fine. Sometimes you’re just the example that triggers the debate.”
The good thing is that multiple quarters of the tech industry have stated that SEC must broaden its rules so that company executives are allowed to share information on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Courtesy: BGR
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