Byju’s put in place a new social media policy keeping staff from talking to the media.
Censorship
Employees associated with Byju’s will have to adhere to the rules while interacting with “any media houses, publications or when using, participating or communicating or through any platforms including but not limited to Twitter (a.k.a. X), LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Telegram, WhatsApp, Quora, blogs, wikis, chat forums, networking forums or any other such tool or service, that facilitates communications or interactions in any form or manner.”
Restructuring
This comes right after letting go 4,000-5000 employees.
This was explained as “company’s decision to restructure businesses”.
Threat
A company-wide communication on September 26 said effective immediately, employees who fail to adhere to the guidelines could face disciplinary or legal action.
“…You are not allowed to speak directly with any media house or provide Company’s information including pictures, videos, screenshots, etc.
“Any violation of this will be taken up by the Company seriously and may result in appropriate disciplinary and legal action initiated against you,” said the document titled Social Media Policy Version 1.0.
Growing discontent
The company earlier used to provide a similar document to the new hires highlighting its code of conduct, sources said creating a separate social media policy and communicating the same company-wide was an attempt at damage control as current and former staff voiced their growing discontent against the edtech major across media platforms.
“Responsible usage of social media”
“As you are aware, Byju’s is working with industry experts to review its business process. As part of this exercise, we are reviewing various policies to reflect industry best practices.
We have updated our existing social media policy and communicated the same internally to our employees.
This policy is no different and encourages responsible usage of social media for communication,” said a company spokesperson
Might be a coincidence
Nearly every company has a social media policy with guidelines on the tone that employees need to have on public platforms.
Sources further said the timing of dissemination might be a coincidence – the fact that this went out the same day when the company announced a massive round of restructuring that would impact 4,000-5,000 employees.
Other offenses
Lately the firm has also avoided written communication, informing employees about their termination on video and audio calls as emails tend to get leaked.
Byju’s, in the document (!), also said that it will “actively monitor” employees’ interactions, external communications, all social media postings and publications, which are related to the company.
Since 2022 it has come under fire for laying off at least 5,000 employees. It has also delayed appraisals, provident fund payments, and withheld performance-linked pay from employees.
