30s Woman Fined for Deleting 100 Company Facebook Posts After Being Fired

Deleting and blocking Facebook upon resignation disrupts work
Work data is 'work-related copyrighted material'... owned by the company

A woman in her 30s was fined for deleting posts from her company's social media (SNS) accounts after receiving a dismissal notice.

On the 18th, Incheon District Court Criminal Division 4 Judge Hong Eun-sook announced that A (30, female), who was charged with electronic record damage, was sentenced to a fine of 2 million won.

On November 10, 2022, after receiving a dismissal notice from the company where she worked, A deleted about 100 posts from the company's Facebook account upon leaving. On the day of her resignation, knowing that the company’s Facebook management rights had not been revoked, she arbitrarily changed the business description of the account and also blocked some functions.

The photo is not directly related to the content of the article.

Judge Hong stated, “Considering the evidence such as the company’s Facebook account, record information, and photos, guilt is recognized,” and ruled, “If the defendant does not pay the fine, she will be detained in a labor camp for a period calculated at 100,000 won per day.”

Documents or data created by employees during work are classified as ‘work-related creations.’ Unless otherwise specified, the rights to these belong to the company. Therefore, arbitrarily deleting work-related creations can constitute the crime of obstruction of business.

In January 2022, the Supreme Court recognized the crime of obstruction of business in a case where employees, dissatisfied with the CEO, formatted their laptops and quit without handing over their work. These employees also failed to follow the company’s policy of backing up work data monthly.

At that time, the Supreme Court pointed out, “Their actions constitute the use of force in obstruction of business, and it was judged that the company’s management operations were obstructed or there was a risk of obstruction.”

In January of this year, the Seoul Eastern District Court fined a former employee 5 million won for deleting about 4,200 work files and resetting the company website before resigning from an internet shopping mall, thereby obstructing business.