Just a day after Netflix told investors that they would regularly use their various social media accounts to disclose material information, even mentioning CEO Reed Hasting’s Facebook account specifically, Hastings has done just that.<\/p>\n
In a Facebook post, Hastings announced that Netflix users have streamed 4 billion hour in the past 3 months. Of course, he would probably argue that this type of tidbit isn’t really material information anyway<\/a> – but it’s nearly identical to the post that got him in trouble with the SEC last December<\/a>. <\/p>\n Hastings posted that Netflix users were now streaming 1 billion hours of content per month, and that ruffled the SEC’s feathers. They claimed that it violated Regulation Fair Disclosure, as the bit of info didn’t come in an official filing or press release. Hastings hit back, saying that 1.) it wasn’t really material and 2.) Facebook does<\/em> count as a network for disclosure.<\/p>\n The SEC eventually cleared Hastings of all wrongdoing in the incident, and updated their rules<\/a> to allow for social media as a dispersion channel for investor info – so long as the company alerts investors beforehand that they will be using the social media channels. <\/p>\n