Actually, that's becoming more and more debatable-- and what's printed on a corporate website DOES: Reg FD
Another concern for public companies is the interaction of social media with the obligations of Regulation Fair Disclosure (“Reg FD”). This issue has arisen with particular prominence when companies disclose information via Twitter. Generally, companies will fulfill the Reg FD requirements where 1) the information is published in a recognized channel of distribution and 2) the information is disseminated in a manner intended to reach the general public. As a safe harbor, companies are advised to make information public through the SEC’s EDGAR website. In fact, once the information has been divulged on the EDGAR platform, companies are then free to distribute and disseminate the information without any constraint.
Unfortunately, recent institutional guidance still does not clarify whether a single tweet may implicate Reg FD. As Nancy Flynn points out in The Social Media Handbook, whether Twitter constitutes a “recognized channel” depends on the efforts made by the company to disclose to its investors the use of Twitter as a channel for the release of financial information. Information is disseminated where the data is readily accessible and attracts the investors’ attention. Accessibility and ease of reference are a concern for heavily tweeted accounts, in which case the company is often advised to create multiple accounts with one account devoted exclusively to the dissemination of corporate information (as has been done for example by Dell). Companies should also attempt to syndicate their tweets on other websites such as search engines, finance pages, and media platforms.
Similarly, a corporate website can be used to satisfy public reporting requirements where the website is a “recognized channel of distribution” (a consideration of whether the website was “reasonably designed to provide broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public”) and if the information was posted in a readily accessible manner according to SEC Release No. 34-58288. At the recent PLI Conference discussing Social Media implications, Google Inc, was reported as being the sole company which used its website to disclose its corporate earnings.
