‘SEC Says It’s OK for Companies to Make Announcements via Social Media’ – ‘Mashable’

Seth Fiegerman says, “The Security and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that businesses can use social networks like Twitter and Facebook to reveal information company information to the public — as long as they give investors a heads up first.

The new policy comes in response to a case involving Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who used his personal Facebook page last July to announce that Netflix had exceeded one billion hours of streaming for the first time, causing the stock price to rise. In December, the SEC launched an investigation into whether Hastings and Netflix had violated fair disclosure rules because the news had not been disclosed to the public through more traditional channels like a press release or SEC filing”.