AI is making social media background checks smarter—but it’s not foolproof

It may be hard to believe, but social media has been a part of our lives for more than 25 years. That’s longer than Olivia Rodrigo, the iPod—even Bennifer. These days, 72% of Americans use social media, and some recruiters use it in their candidate vetting process.

While social media background checks aren’t new, many HR pros still use methods better suited to the ’90s. We spoke to the CEO of a new AI-powered social media vetting service who believes technology can streamline the process, as well as a professor who isn’t sold.

Zoom out. Recruiters may want to review a candidate’s social media to ensure their values align with the company’s, or that they don’t have a track record of hate speech, for example.

It’s unclear how often recruiters conduct social media vetting, but JR Keller, associate professor of HR at Cornell University, believes that when they do, the process is likely tedious and unstructured. Technological advancements may change that, he told HR Brew: “The easier it becomes to actually track these things, the more likely it is that companies are going to adapt, and if they can pay for a license or a new technology to do it for them, it’s more tempting.”

New tool. The latest technology to enter the fray, launched earlier this month by social media marketing and talent agency Viral Nation, aims to do just that. Called VN Secure, the AI-powered tool allows recruiters to screen for specific activity, such as racial slurs or otherwise discriminatory language, on public social media accounts.

“HR leaders all around the world have started to look at social media as one of those hiring steps, but the problem is that they’re all doing it manually,” said Joe Gagliese, co-CEO of Viral Nation. VN Secure, he added, can streamline the process by allowing technology to do the work for the recruiter. “They’re seeing that a single tweet can have a massive financial repercussion not only on the brand identity, but even financially,” he added.

After scanning a candidate’s social media profiles, the tool shows recruiters the platforms analyzed, the number of potentially problematic posts, and the percentage of total posts those represent. Based on that, a candidate is assigned a risk score in a variety of categories. These can be customized based on a company’s specific needs, but may include drugs, gambling, hate speech, or nudity.

“We’re not inferring anything with the data,” Gagliese said. “We’re just showing them the flags.”

Bias concerns. While social media vetting is legal in the US, the ethics of doing so is murky at best. “It opens up a million additional sources of bias that aren’t supposed to be there,” Keller explained, such as marital status, sexual orientation, and political beliefs, which aren’t relevant to a candidate’s ability to do a job or are illegal to ask about.

Gagliese believes his tool can help recruiters avoid potential biases by limiting what recruiters can search for. “This is not a tactic to allow a company to say, ‘I only want to hire left-wing folks.’ This is a system that is built to prevent things that are actually material for the brand,” he said.

Considerations. While Gagliese believes HR leaders will come to rely on technology like his during the recruitment process, Keller isn’t so sure.

Social media is “not new anymore,” Keller said, adding that he suspects that “cyber vetting happens with less frequency than it gets talked about.” Further, candidates may not be so keen on having their accounts scanned. He said that his students’ attitude is, “I don’t want to work for a company that’s gonna filter me out because of what I post on social media.”

Keller suggested that recruiters consider social media vetting an absolute last step before extending a job offer, “and then almost think about it as kind of a background check.” Gagliese recommended that HR be as transparent as possible with candidates when reviewing their social media, even clearing it with them first.

Recruiters will likely be vetting candidates’ social media for the foreseeable future. After all, it’s only a matter of time before Gen Alpha releases its version of Myspace.—KP

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