# Handling Viral Misconduct: Due Process, Deepfakes, and Franchisee Realities Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/hr-voices-7512407/handling-viral-misconduct-due-process-deepfakes-and-franchisee-realities Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/hr-voices-7512407/handling-viral-misconduct-due-process-deepfakes-and-franchisee-realities.md Podcast: [HR Voices](https://stenobird.com/podcast/hr-voices-7512407) Published: 2026-04-02T00:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/172e482a Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/172e482a/8d26c482.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/hr-voices-7512407/episodes/handling-viral-misconduct-due-process-deepfakes-and-franchisee-realities Duration seconds: 1612 ## Resource About this episode 🎙️ Handling Viral Misconduct: Due Process, Deepfakes, and Franchisee Realities Summary When a customer films a frontline worker spewing racist slurs and the clip explodes online, how do you protect your brand without abandoning due process? Amrita Bhaumik, VP of HR at Team Car Care—the largest Jiffy Lube franchisee—shares a clear, defensible playbook for high-stakes, high-speed incidents. Leading a large employee relations function across a distributed retail network, Amrita explains how to investigate quickly and fairly when social pressure is peaking and deepfakes muddy the truth. She breaks down who to interview first (and who to avoid to prevent “telephone game” distortions), why suspension beats same-day termination, and how to authenticate video using in-store footage and anti-deepfake checks. You’ll also hear how to handle customer outreach, when to make a public statement, and the most common ER mistakes that sink cases later. Finally, Amrita clarifies ownership in a franchise model and the training, policy, and hiring practices that prevent incidents in the first place—from social media governance to de-escalation and selecting for customer orientation. Timestamps [00:01] – Show intro and today’s headline-inspired scenario [01:58] – Brand risk vs. due process: reacting fast without cutting corners [06:09] – Investigation plan: who to interview, what to avoid, and rigorous documentation [07:46] – Verifying evidence in the deepfake era; leveraging in-store footage [09:11] – Interim steps: suspend vs. terminate; outreach to affected customers [11:49] – Common ER pitfalls: bias, skipped steps, weak records [13:39] – Decision-making frame: values, legal, operations, and precedents—at speed [23:51] – Franchisee vs. corporate: who owns the call and… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/hr-voices-7512407/episodes/handling-viral-misconduct-due-process-deepfakes-and-franchisee-realities/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/hr-voices-7512407/handling-viral-misconduct-due-process-deepfakes-and-franchisee-realities.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.