freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequences
Posted on 05/05/2012 6:44:38 AM PDT by Brandonmark
Before you click that "like" button in Facebook, you should know that a judge in federal court asserted that this is not protected under the 1st Amendment.
In what boils down to a wrongful termination case (Bland vs. Roberts) brought before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, four former employees of a sheriff up for reelection claimed that they were fired after, among other things, he discovered that they "liked" his opponent's campaign page on Facebook.
"According to the Plaintiffs, after learning of their support of their opponent, the Sheriff called a meeting in which he informed his employees that they should get on the 'long train' with him rather than riding the 'short train' with his opponent," according to court documents.
In citing other cases of protected speech on Facebook in his decision, the judge notes that, unlike the simple act of clicking "like," actual statements were made.
"The key question is, is the act of 'liking' something of Facebook, does that express an opinion or thought," said Aden Fine, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in an interview with The Times. "It certainly does. The mere fact that you're pressing a button to express that view or opinion instead of saying those words doesn't make a difference."
Helen A.S. Popkin of MSNBC's Technolog wrote that Jeff Hermes, director of the Digital Media Law Project, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, told her, "The judge was essentially devaluing the 'like' as speech because of how simple it is to do."
How much thought does go into clicking that button? For that matter, is there a standard of quantity -- or quality, for that matter -- of thought for any kind of expression to earn protection?
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
This just goes to show how deep into our lives the government is willing to go to control our thoughts and actions. The fact that clicking a [Like] button on Facebook gets the attention of the judiciary is absurd on more than one level.
Most of the Bill of Rights doesn’t apply anymore. For every God-given right you have; corporations and governments have, and the courts uphold it, created “loopholes” to conditionally take away that right for various good-sounding reasons that amount to tyranny.
Probably the best commentary on America and our political state can be determined by the mindless TV and whatever urge induces people to tell the world, "Well, I'm leaving for the mall now" or "You suck, you dirty +++++++ and all your &%^$# family and )*(^$#&* friends and you can all go ^^%&$@(( !!!"
Well, I'm at my computer now and I'm "typing" (LOL) a reply to a thread (that's what we "freepers" call a conversation LOL, LOL )
From reading this article, looks more like an employee termination case, not a government ban on free expression of opinion (or "thought").
This is called, "Bad Mouthing the Boss." Probably not best to sow seeds of discontent [especially in public arena] if you want to keep your job.
And these former employees are likely not deputies... so they are not protected by union rules and should have known better.
I took something entirely different from the article. It wasn't saying that the First Amendment doesn't apply, but just the opposite. It was saying that the judgement was that even your key-click was protected, but that the thought/message behind the key-click meant something: in this case, that you Liked/agreed with the thing that you clicked on. This would be similar to clicking on the I Agree button at the beginning of a software installation -- a legal contract.
This falls in with what Andrew Wommack has been saying in his series, The Power of Faith-filled Words. His contention is that we are so careless with our speech that we really don't mean a lot of the stuff that we say from day to day. A lot of our speech is frivolous and not well thought out. The above article implies that all that may well be, but just because something can be executed quickly and thoughtlessly with just a key-click doesn't mean that it has no effect nor that the fleeting thought behind the execution should be considered invalid.
Free speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences of that speech.
The feds normally cannot punish you for your speech but your employer, friends and acquaintances can, without penalty, ignore you, shun you, fire you, etc. if they disagree with your speech. You take your chances.
freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequences
Life was good before FB, Twit, and all the rest, and it will continue to be so after they are gone. Whatever weird human psychology is driving millions of people to expose themselves using these services will someday regret it, I’m afraid.
FaceBook is evil and it brings evil. Why anyone would join after reading these and the thousands of other stories is beyond me.
It’s a lot more complicated. I know lots of people who “Like” a candidate just so they can follow that candidate’s posts and to post on the candidate’s Facebook page. Quite a few people I know “Like” several candidates including candidates of the Democrat party. They also are “Friends” of quite a number of Democrats.
Back when I was new to Facebook, I got upset that our Republican sheriff “Liked” the campaign Facebook page of the longtime Democrat incumbent congressman. A friend of mine who is very active in local Republican politics told me he had to play ball with the Democrats in power locally, and he was trying to expand his appeal across partisan lines. It all worked out well in 2010 when the congressman and his son both got defeated in their races. The sheriff who served out the unexpired term of his predecessor after the 2006 election, got reelected to a full 4-year term in 2008 with almost 60% of the vote and will run for one more term in 2012.
This has nothing to do with Facebook or the First Amendment, you’ve always been able to be fired for saying the wrong thing, and supporting the competition is definitely the wrong thing.
It didn’t get the attention of the judiciary, it got the guy fired and then he sued for wrongful termination, and lost.
pretty much...
No, it is a common misunderstanding of what the First Amendment is all about. Freedom of Speech is NOT freedom from consequences. If the sheriff prohibited employees from using Facebook at all, that would be prior restraint and generally Unconstitutional. Here, the employees are reaping the consequence of their speech. There may be other grounds to challenge that outcome, but the First Amendment isn’t one of them.
I seems to me that clicking "like" got people fired from their jobs. Just why isn't this worthy of judicial attention?
I bet if you got fired for clicking "like" you would change your mind about the attention-worthiness of the act.
HA, If the product is free then YOU are the product...
The main value of FB and similar sites is gathering information about people that they never ever could. Closest thing to reading your mind....
That and they want to know who all your friends and contacts are.
I don’t think that their intention is sinister at all, but anyone who willingly puts all this information about themselves (forever) is crazy.
The information will eventually be data mined and be used in ways that you would not approve.
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