Update: Stephane’s tweets have since been deleted.

It was just a regular Sunday, until this popped up in my timeline…

It piqued my interest, so I did some research to find out more. The guy behind this tweet is Stephane Samson, (ex) Brand Director for Lotus Group. While you may not be familiar with Lotus Group, you’re probably familiar with the Lotus F1 team, known for its irreverent and genuinely funny tweets, as well as some that made headlines last year, like ().

Back in February, Stephane posted a tweet from the Lotus F1 account in support of gay athletes during the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The tweet was later deleted, Lotus apologised for the “unauthorised” tweet, and we never heard anything more about it. Until today.

Stephane has revealed that Lotus Group has fired him due to that tweet.

So, he has invited people to spread the message (with the hashtag #LotusAntiGay) to raise awareness and to “show them”.

People have favourited and retweeted Stephane’s tweets (some in support, some in a rush of judgment against Lotus Group, perhaps without doing any prior research). Some have given their two cents, calling Lotus Group homophobic for sacking Stephane for his “pro-LGBT tweet”.

Now, here are my two cents.

Stealing copyright content is NOT cool!

First of all, he posted a copyrighted picture on a corporate account. A bit of research on the picture led me to this blog: [NSFW] beautifulmag.com/beautiful/2008/11/beautifulmag–1.html. This is where the picture comes from, a blog that “contains adult and gay material.” (The site’s words, not mine.) That’s all well and good – what isn’t all well and good is the fact that a Social Media Community Manager thought it was okay to take a copyrighted picture from a paid modelling photoshoot (shot by a paid photographer), to then post it on a corporate account without any consent – how many times have we heard of brands being sued by creative people for stealing their work? By doing what he did, Stephane put the position of the company he was working for in danger and at risk of a possible lawsuit – regardless of whether the picture featured two guys kissing, two girls kissing, or a guy and a girl kissing; regardless of what the message was trying to convey – whether it was a funny original picture from Buzzfeed, or an original picture about women’s rights or racism.

“But others do it too” is NOT a good reason.

On his Twitter account Stephane mentioned that other brands have done it too, “so why shouldn’t he?”. Now, that is true – if you remember, Google posted a Doodle in support of LGBT rights during the Sochi Olympics – the picture itself spoke a thousand words, and you could tell the message that Google was trying to convey. Now, when comparing Stephane’s tweet to other brands who have raised awareness for LGBT, I can see 2 main differences:

1. Brands who wanted to raise awareness did so with their own content, not stealing someone else’s – maybe it was created in-house, maybe it was created from a paid agency, either way they had the rights to any creative pieces they used. Stephane didn’t.
2. Brand who wanted to raise awareness did so unanimously – it didn’t come just from one person, regardless of his or her position in the company. It came from a unanimous decision (implying that there had been discussions and conversations involving various teams and various people). Hence, when their posts came out, it was authorised and approved. Stephane’s tweet wasn’t.

A quick note on this one…

Now, before I go any further – there’s nothing wrong in showing your support for great causes, and I personally do admire brands and people who do that – whether it’s against discrimination of any sort or to support human rights etc. However, not every brand will openly post something about this – and to be honest, they’re not obliged to. That alone (I repeat – that alone) does not make them homophobic, racist, sexist, or discriminatory in any sense. There may be other reasons, and most of them may be corporate.  However, there’s nothing stopping you from showing your support publicly on your personal profile.

So, I’m personally not going to be offended if a brand doesn’t post a tweet in support of a cause that I particularly care about, or a cause that affects me directly – but:

• That won’t make me see them in a negative look;
• That won’t make me unfollow them or slander them in any way, shape or form;
• That won’t stop me from talking about such cause from my own account.

Risqué DOES come with risks and consequences

When you’re being handed the password to your company’s Twitter account or Facebook account etc., you’re being entrusted with a big responsibility – you’re now in charge of the front-facing account that your company has for the whole world. While your content can have a light-hearted tone, this isn’t a responsibility to be taken lightly. As a Community Manager your job is similar to a brand’s spokesperson – you own up after the content you publish.

Posting somewhat risqué copyrighted content on a corporate account will result in disciplinary action more often than not. However, the disciplinary action taken alone doesn’t make the brand homophobic. Regardless of what message it is, if you’re a Community Manager and you share unauthorised content from an account that represent the whole brand, you will face disciplinary action – that may come in form of a slap on the wrist (as it were), a temporary ban of some sort, a suspension, and sometimes termination of your contract.

Now, while I’m not condemning Stephane as a person (and why would/should I?), I really am sorry that he’s lost his job, and I hope this situation works out ASAP. However, was Lotus Group right in dismissing Stephane from his job, especially after all the hard work he’s put into his work? That’s not for me to say, especially since we don’t know the whole story, and all we know is what Stephane has chosen to disclose with us (and any press release that may choose on releasing hereafter). Perhaps this was Stephane’s third strike; perhaps Lotus F1 are indeed homophobic and they’re trying to cover it up (and if that is the case, shame on them). However, two things are for sure:

• this disciplinary action alone doesn’t necessarily make Lotus F1 homophobic;
• Community Managers are responsible for the content they publish and the consequences that they may face as a result – whether positive or negative.

That is all.