On August 18, the Acting General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board issued a report summarizing several social media cases handled by the Board in the past year.  According to the Acting General Counsel

This report presents recent case developments arising in
the context of today’s social media. Social media include
various online technology tools that enable people to
communicate easily via the internet to share information and
resources. These tools can encompass text, audio, video,
images, podcasts, and other multimedia communications. Recent
developments in the Office of the General Counsel have presented
emerging issues concerning the protected and/or concerted nature
of employees’ Facebook and Twitter postings, the coercive impact
of a union’s Facebook and YouTube postings, and the lawfulness
of employers’ social media policies and rules. This report
discusses these cases, as well as a recent case involving an
employer’s policy restricting employee contacts with the media.
All of these cases were decided upon a request for advice from a
Regional Director.

According to the Acting General Counsel, the intent of releasing this report is to provide guidance to human resources professionals on the Board's position as to what activity it believes is protected by the National Labor Relations Act versus activity that is not protected.