Social Media and activism - background check

Question

I recieved an offer from an MBB firm and going through background check

During my undergrad I was politically active and built a presence online. A website, with opposing political ideology, made a profile on me in an attempt to shame me. If you google my name you'll see the profile as the first page

This profile was highlighted to my current employer before and they did an investigation but found that I have done nothing that they deem is not inline with their policies.

I'm wondering how will this impact my chances with this firm

Answer 1

Hi there,

It's honestly hard for us to say. We don't know what this exact profile is, but as long as you individually have not made obscene comments online you *should* be ok. I'm sorry but it's hard to predict exactly what will have in this case - you should be fine but only time will tell.

Is there a way for you to get this profile removed? One route is to kindly ask, telling the site that activity is in the past. A plan B route (read: I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice) is some sort of defamation suit (or threat of one) to prompt them to remove the profile...this would prevent any issues with hiring in the future! Just suggestions to consider as possibilities...not to act upon without prior legal counsel.

Answer 2

I can totally imagine how annoying & worrying this must be. The digial foortpint we leave can come back and bite in unexpected ways.

From a background check perspective, I have never come across any case where a candidate has been rejected due to their social media activities. And to be honest am not entirely sure whether such a check is done in a thorough manner. If however, anyone posts totally inapproproate content in the digital world then they must face the consequences.

Try and see if this content can be removed completely. And I also think you can be honest about this with the current firm and offer to discuss should they have any issues with it- I doubt they will have.

All the best.

Answer 3

Hi there,

I think your question was not saved, if you want to add it we are happy to help ;)

EDIT: I saw you added the question. First of all congratulations on the offer!

If the website has defamatory comments there may be room for asking to remove it. You may also try a “soft” approach first contacting them, and if it doesn’t work see if you go for the legal route.

If the content is not defamatory, I don’t think it can have an impact, although it is difficult to say without seeing the profile.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Answer 4

This is usually not part of the background check. Even if it was, if you didn't do anything wrong, this would be unlikely to be an issue.

However, this may become a bigger issue when you raise up the ranks, so you may take some legal action to get that removed (on the other hand, with time, some pages just tend to stop showing in the search rankings because they lose relevance).

Answer 5

Hello!

HOnestly, it can even be a good thign if you can explain the story correctly. At the end of the day, it demonstrates passion and commitment!

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara