In chapter seven of "Share This", Robin Wilson discusses how Facebook can be used as a tool to engage with your audiences through socially enabling your business through the ability to share actions directly on a users news feed, build communities online with people who share an interest in a brand, Facebook offers and successfully using applications online. Users on Facebook will "like" fan pages, share posts and pictures that they want to comment on and unintentionally create engagement among their friends on the website. Occasionally, users will "like" or endorse a website or fan page that users within their network will not like. But can you get fired for this?
According to Chief Judge William B. Traxler Jr., no. Former deputy sheriff B.J. Roberts was fired for "liking" the page of an opponent of the current sheriff in an election for the new city sheriff. Traxler decided that "liking" the fan page on Facebook was no different than Roberts placing a sign in his front yard or a bumper sticker on his car. These actions, called substantive speech, are protected by the First Amendment.
The First Amendment protects everyone's rights to express their opinions and beliefs in any way they choose to do so. If this includes newspaper editorials, signs in yards and protests, why would it not include our online interactions? If our Facebook posts, Tweets and YouTube videos are considered to be a digital extension of ourselves, they should be. Do you believe that all online interactions should be protected by the First Amendment? Why or why not?(2012) Share This. The social media handbook for professionals. United Kingdom. John Wiley & Sons Ltd
An interesting case, and one that establishes an important precedent in online speech. Related but more difficult is what should be done in terms of free speech when the managers of websites like Facebook or YouTube decide to prevent certain types of speech on said websites. One of the issues of corporate ownership of means of communication like social networks is that it imposes a set of rules on everyone who uses them.
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