Email from Nick. As the bashers call Nick stupid a
Post# of 519
This gentleman is very very incorrect, and blatantly trying to misrepresent an SEC decision to fool people. This decision to block that [anonymous and unknown person] from twitter was cleared by independent counsel, and is supported by an opinion of the SEC. I would add that this person is a paid basher who works for a short seller, and was not just giving an opinion, but he was being abusive, and making legally liable statements.
You see, A company’s twitter account is NOT protected distribution. Social media “Can” be considered distribution if a company wants it to, but only if it is unrestricted to the public. If a company chooses to restrict it’s social media (for example requiring a person to “friend" them, or join with a password etc.) it is perfectly protected but cannot be “solely" relied upon as distribution of public information. The decision that the gentleman is talking about allows companies to use social media to distribute news, and call it “public info”, and it also protects what companies say on social media, so they are not accused of putting out material info in a private setting (inside information). Companies can now feel free to say stuff on facebook or twitter and NOT be in danger of being accused of putting out inside information (as long as unrestricted).
The ONLY time this gentleman would be correct, is if a company put out ALL of their news AND disclosures on social media exclusively, and it was the only place the public could get that info. In that case when the company restricted someone, the social media would instantly no longer be considered public dissemination and anything they released to the public on that social media would have to be put out on a newswire also, or they would not be disseminating public info as required.
Since we use PR newswire to put out all material news, and OTCMarkets to put out all disclosures, we don’t need our social media to be “public info” and therefore can block anyone we like as a natural right of the corporation. All you need to do is call FINRA or the SEC and ask if a company is allowed to block an anonymous and unknown person from their social network accounts, and they will tell you of course they can provided they do not use that social media as the sole method of distributing material disclosures.
GO MDIN GO!!!