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Social media can be used to engage stakeholders, inform the public, build awareness, and attract traffic to websites and other key resources of a nuclear organisation. However, unrestricted use by personnel can damage an organisation’s reputation, spread misinformation about nuclear materials, and impact safety and security on-site.
Risks to nuclear facilities involving social media might include staff members taking photos on-site and sharing these. For example, the backdrop of a staff social function could potentially reveal to an external adversary essential details about physical protection or access routes. In 2018, users of a fitness tracking app famously enabled their whereabouts to be shared with other users, thereby giving away the location of secret US army bases. Such data has been used by online whistleblowing platforms and investigative journalism groups to expose locations of sensitive materials.
As such, the advent of social media has created a fine line between private and professional use of the internet. A report by the Nuclear Energy Agency found that the vast majority of nuclear regulators impose restrictions on posting on official social media platforms, and a slight majority promote policies or guidance to staff on using social media, but only half conduct training for staff on how to use social media.
To tackle accidental information sharing, nuclear sites are recommended to maintain a no phone and no camera policy. More generally, social media guidance should focus on staff members using good judgement, protecting sensitive or prescribed information, and not speaking on behalf of the organisation unless authorised to do so.
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