Scheduling Social Media Post on Shabbat

Question

Many social media apps now allow users to schedule their content to post at a later time. Is it permitted to use this feature in advance of Shabbat to schedule content to post automatically during Shabbat?

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    As you are not doing anything forbidden on Shabbat, itself, I think that it would be permissible. However, to avoid the problems of Marit Ayin – a Halachically permissible act that looks wrong – I think that you would need to write clearly in an impossible-to-miss-place on the post that what you have posted was written before Shabbat and automatically scheduled to be posted on Shabbat without any direct input from you.

    If the majority of your readership are Jewish and they will read what your have posted on Shabbat, I think that it would be correct to wait and post it only after Shabbat has gone out.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team