Social Media: Federal Employment Laws

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Social Media: Federal Employment Laws

Reference Number: MTAS-1615
Reviewed Date: 09/04/2026

Cities must comply with applicable federal, Tennessee, and local employment laws when using social media for recruiting, hiring, promotion, discipline, investigations, or other employment decisions. The same nondiscrimination, privacy, recordkeeping, and fair-employment principles that apply to traditional hiring methods also apply when a city uses social media.

Social media can reveal protected or sensitive information that would not ordinarily be relevant to an applicant’s qualifications. Therefore, the city should consider only verified, job-related information and should not use social-media information to make employment decisions based on protected characteristics, medical information, family medical history, or other legally protected information.

Applicable laws may include:

  • The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and Tennessee military-leave laws.
  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
  • The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
  • The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA).
  • The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).
  • The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).
  • The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), when the city obtains a background report from a third-party consumer reporting agency.
  • The Tennessee Human Rights Act and any applicable local civil-rights or personnel-law requirements.

Title VII
Title VII prohibits employment discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity, or national origin. It also prohibits harassment and retaliation for opposing discrimination or participating in a discrimination complaint, investigation, or proceeding.

Title VII generally applies to state and local government employers with 15 or more employees for each working day in at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.

ADA and PWFA
The ADA prohibits employment discrimination against a qualified individual because of disability. It generally requires a covered employer to provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified applicant or employee with a disability unless doing so would impose an undue hardship.

The PWFA requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship. The PWFA applies to public-sector employers, including cities, with 15 or more employees.

ADEA
The ADEA prohibits employment discrimination against applicants and employees who are 40 years of age or older. Although private employers generally must have at least 20 employees to be covered, state and local government employers are covered under the ADEA regardless of the number of employees.

Pregnancy Discrimination Act
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act amended Title VII to prohibit discrimination because of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. It requires employers to treat employees affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions the same as other employees who are similar in their ability or inability to work.

GINA
Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits covered employers from discriminating against applicants or employees because of genetic information. It also generally prohibits employers from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information and restricts disclosure of such information.

Genetic information includes information about an individual’s genetic tests, family members’ genetic tests, and the manifestation of a disease or disorder in a family member, commonly called family medical history. Because social-media content may disclose family health information, a city should take steps to prevent this information from being considered by hiring managers or other employment decision-makers.

Social-Media Practice
A trained Human Resources reviewer should conduct any authorized social-media screening using a written, consistently applied, job-related process. The reviewer should forward only verified information relevant to the position or employment decision and should not forward protected-status, medical, genetic, family, political, or other non-job-related information to the hiring manager.


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