You Can Be Fired for a Facebook “Like”

[kpete]

If you want to keep your job, don’t “like” someone on Facebook who is an opponent of your boss. In a decision that affects free expression on social media, a federal judge ruled that there’s no First Amendment protection for a one-click Facebook like.

“It is the Court’s conclusion that merely “liking” a Facebook page is insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection,” wrote federal trial judge Raymond A. Jackson of Norfolk, VA.

The candidate in question — B.J. Roberts, Sheriff of Hampton, Virginia — cited a budget squeeze when he fired Bobby Bland and four cohorts, who took to the court crying free speech foul over Facebook. The ex-employees of Roberts’ election campaign said the sheriff knew they “liked” his opponent’s Facebook page, prompting Roberts to let them go once he won.

Bland and friends also attended Roberts’ opponents cookout, but the court decided that Roberts didn’t know about that or the bumper sticker – which would be protected under the First Amendment.

................

http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=cd579eff-48d7-4b93-b4e3-501e72fe0dd0&utm_source=jds&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=law_practice&utm_term=+&utm_content=+

[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. Does "speech" need to contain a certain number of words before it's judged

as free speech, or not free speech? I'm not understanding why "insufficient speech" was used by the court as a rationale for not protecting that speech.

Is the converse true? Can I now yell "fire" in a crowded theater that isn't on fire, since it's only one word?

[11 Bravo]

6. Nope, only a certain number of $ signs. Just ask Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas.

[southernyankeebelle]

11. Haven't you heard this is a new area. No one has freedom of speech.

[Initech]

2. And my friends wonder why I don't do social networking.

[Iggo]

5. Yup.

They can email me, call me, text me, and in extreme cases actually visit me.

That's enough for me.

[hifiguy]

12. + infinity

I wouldn't go on Facebook at gunpoint.

[Initech]

13. Yeah the last thing I want is to get fired for liking the wrong like.

Facebook = the death of privacy.

[-..__...]

9. Same here.

I have a few friends/coworkers that maintain a Facebook page, and on several occasions, I was made aware of/shown pictures that had been posted that could have easily resulted in disciplinary action (suspended/fired), if the powers that be had seen them.

[htuttle]

3. Idiot decision by the Judge

What if I click 'Like' on the page for the local synagogue, or a Muslim or Catholic group? Is that now unprotected speech?

What if the 'Like' button said instead, 'I kind of agree with or find this item interesting enough to let my friends know about it,' would that make any difference?

What if the 'one click' speech is for a poll about one's ancestral background?

Dumbass judge...

[Egalitarian Thug]

19. Listen very carefully...

EVERYTHING YOU DO, WRITE, AND INTERACT WITH ON FACEBOOK BELONGS TO FACEBOOK.

You have no expectation of privacy for even looking at a facebook page. It can be tracked, used, bought, sold, and utilized in any way Facebook sees fit, and they do so with a vengeance. The Judge is not the dumbass in this case. The dumbasses are everybody that exchanges their rights for the thrill of writing messages back and forth with people whom you didn't care enough about to stay in contact with or with whom you wouldn't even talk to IRL.

[drm604]

4. "Like" on FB can be ambiguous.

It could simply mean that you want to follow that page or that you recommend that your friends look at it. It doesn't necessarily mean that you literally like someone or something.

[aquart]

17. Which is why "like" was an idiotic word to choose.

It sounds like an endorsement when all you might mean is that this subject might be worth some attention.

[whistler162]

7. Yeah the problem was liking a facebook page not

Last edited Thu May 3, 2012, 07:41 PM - Edit history (1)

liking the opponents facebook page and attending a cookout for the opponent while employed by the other candidates election organization!

WOW I am quite surprised<SARCASM>!

[Speck Tater]

8. Yet another reaason for not even doing Facebook to begin with. nt

[HockeyMom]

10. While still a school district employee in a state that banned Marriage Equality,

I not only "liked" a Facebook Gay Marriage in another state (my native state), I wrote emails to that state's representatives advocating my support of their votes for equality.

If the school district where I worked didn't like that, tough s-----. Bullying is not acceptable, for students, or STAFF.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. So? You can be locked in a room to die for 5 days w no water for smoking pot

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/uc-san-diego-student-dea-jail-outrage.html

The DEA said Chong told agents he had been at the house that was raided "to get high with his friends"

Basically, your tax dollars are being used to wage a campaign of wholesale extermination against anyone caught smoking a joint. the DEA says that whatever they did to this guy is fine, since he was smoking pot at a party. They could have killed him. Tough shit, dude!

Welcome to America, 2012, and the insanity that is the drug war.

[Canuckistanian]

15. +1

Oops, shouldn't have done that.

[Iris]

16. Um...then we have no free speech

A "like" is one of the smallest forms of expression a person can make.

[Egalitarian Thug]

18. Let me be a little more succinct, If you want to maintain any semblance

of privacy and security, DON'T DO FACEBOOK, period".

Thanks you for your time. K&R

[provis99]

20. Virginia is a "fire-at-will" state.

this boss didn't need any reason to fire them; he could do it for whatever reason he felt like. So these idiots don't have a case to stand on.