Last week, Netflix was hit with the news that a Facebook update might cause the company to face legal action from the Securities and Exchange Commission. In July, CEO Reed Hastings updated his Facebook page, in a public post, touting that Netflix subscribers streamed one billion hours of content in June, a company milestone, and congratulating his team. That post, says the SEC, might violate the Regulation Fair Disclosure rule, which requires information to be disclosed to publicly to investors at the same time. According to the Chicago Tribune, the SEC’s case will fall down to whether that milestone was substantive to investors and, if so, whether investors knew Hastings planned to disclose important company news on his Facebook page. If the SEC finds Netflix violated the rule, the company can face civil action.

Increasingly brands expect social media to be part of any media company’s offerings. According to the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 94 percent of businesses with a marketing department use social media as part of their marketing efforts. There are plenty of benefits — exposure, lead generation, establishing customer loyalty — but this recent case shows there are some pitfalls as well, and legal ones at that. Here are four other legal cases involving social media, and tactics you can take to avoid legal trouble.

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