Social Media Checks

Social Media Screening

Social media plays a significant role in how people communicate, express opinions and engage with the world. It can also reveal behaviours, attitudes or patterns that may influence workplace culture, brand reputation or role suitability. At the same time, privacy boundaries must be respected, and checks must be conducted in a legally compliant and ethically responsible way.

Information that is publicly available is generally not considered private under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and courts have consistently found that employers may take open social media commentary into account. TalentScreen by MVSI conducts Social Media Checks strictly within these boundaries, focusing only on information that is public, relevant and appropriate to consider as part of a pre-employment process.

Our Social Media Checks review platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. We use search terms aligned with your objectives and look for material that may present risks, such as evidence of criminal behaviour, drug use, discriminatory views, reputationally damaging commentary or other behaviours that may conflict with your workplace values or stakeholder expectations.

These checks are conducted carefully and consistently, with a strong focus on context, accuracy and fairness. Our goal is to help you understand online behaviour that may be beneficial or concerning, without making assumptions or overstepping legal and ethical boundaries.

In Your Report

Your Social Media report includes:

• The social media platforms searched
• Whether candidate profiles were located and verified
• Privacy settings for each identified profile
• Any relevant commentary or public content that matches your defined search topics
• Clear and objective findings without interpretation or subjective judgement

Using the information

Social Media Checks provide insight into behaviours and attitudes that may influence team dynamics, culture or brand representation. They can help you:

• Identify behaviour that could pose reputational risk
• Confirm alignment with organisational values
• Gain assurance that a candidate is unlikely to post publicly in ways that may embarrass your organisation
• Better understand personal conduct that may be relevant to safety, trust or customer facing roles