It's Time For The SEC To Join The Digital Age: Why The SEC's Attempted Crackdown On The Use Of Social Media Is Misguided

January 16, 2013

Early last month, Netflix disclosed the fact that it and its Chief Executive Officer, Reed Hastings, had received “Wells Notices” from the Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those Wells Notices threatened civil claims and cease and desist proceedings against the company and Mr. Hastings predicated on Mr. Hastings' June 2012 Twitter post touting the fact that Netflix users had streamed more than 1 billion hours of video that month. The SEC believes that Mr. Hastings' post potentially violated SEC Regulation Fair Disclosure (Regulation FD), which requires companies and their representatives to disclose material nonpublic information through the filing of a Form 8-K [...]