Advertise
Resources
Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
Clicking that “like” button Facebook can get you fired. At least that is the experience of a worker in the sheriff's office in Hampton, Va., who clicked on the like button of an opponent to Sheriff B.J. Roberts' 2009-re-election bid, according to news reports.
The sheriff, who won his re-election bid anyway, fired the worker, Daniel Ray Carter, and five others who had supported his opponent. Sheriff Roberts said some of the workers were let go because he wanted to replace them with sworn deputies, while others were fired because of poor performance or his belief their actions “hindered the harmony and efficiency of the office.”
The workers claimed their First Amendment rights had been violated and filed suit. But Judge Raymond A. Jackson in the federal district court in Norfolk, Va., ruled against them, stating that clicking the “like” button did not amount to free speech.
Others disagree with Judge Jackson. Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, told the Associated Press, for instance, that although “like” could be ambiguous, there was no question it counted as speech.
“It is conveying a message to others,” said Mr. Volokh. “It may just involve a couple of mouse clicks, or maybe just one more mouse click, but the point of that mouse click, a major point of that mouse click, is to inform others that you like whatever that means.”