56 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JULY/AUGUST 2017
IN STARK COUNTERPOINT to the predilections of the current US president
— who makes great use of Twitter as a medium — the Canadian Securities
Administrators (CSA) say their reality more or less excludes social media.
To be fair, the CSA has its own Twitter account and explicitly endorses
social media, but only as an auxiliary line of communication. e regula-
tor strictly maintains that no material event has been properly disclosed
until it's published through traditional channels. e internet is, appar-
ently, not yet "sufficiently widespread" to qualify as an adequate medi-
um for material disclosure.
Specifically, the CSA says in Staff Notice (SN) 51-348 that publicly
traded companies' material disclosures must not be posted to corporate
websites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or any of
their ilk, until aer they've been made widely available through a press
release on a publicly accessible news network or in a pre-announced press
conference, followed by filing to the System for Electronic Document Analy-
sis and Retrieval (SEDAR).
Furthermore, braggadocio of the sort used by US President Donald Trump is
banned. Social media channels may be used to support required disclosure, the CSA
says in its March 9 pronouncement, but may not include unbalanced, misleading or
overly promotional content or tone.
SN 51-348 makes clear that social media are a tertiary means of communicating
with investors, says Christopher Main, Associate General Counsel for Telus Com-
munications Inc.
IN-HOUSE ADVISOR
OR NOT TO TWEET
To Tweet
The Canadian Securities
Administrators have
reasserted the rules
around material
disclosure, particularly
as they apply to social
media. Companies
dabbling in social media
should take heed
BY BRIAN BURTON
ILLUSTRATION:
SHUTTERSTOCK
