People are losing jobs due to social media posts about Charlie Kirk

[Dulcinea]

(NPR) Over thirty people across the country have been fired, put on leave, investigated or faced calls to resign because of social media posts criticizing Charlie Kirk or expressing schadenfreude about the conservative influencer's assassination earlier this week, according to an analysis by NPR.

And more may be to come: some GOP lawmakers and officials are signaling their readiness to punish people for their speech. Conservative activists are collecting and publicizing social media posts and profiles that they say "celebrated" his death and are calling for them to lose their jobs.

"If they have their picture on their profile, even without a name, download the picture and reverse image search it," posted right-wing influencer Joey Mannarino. "Cross-reference it with their LinkedIn profile and find their place of employment. Call the place of employment, leave Google reviews."

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/13/nx-s1-5538476/charlie-kirk-jobs-target-social-media-critics-resign

[markie]

1. oh, the irony

[wishstar]

2. Meanwhile, all the Repubs and MAGA who criticized him are scrubbing their posts

despite all the MAGA sloganeering over Freedom and touting Kirk's support for open "debating" and not wanting to be restrained by any politically correct "wokeness".

[mwmisses4289]

3. Freespeech lawsuits.

They scream about their right to free speech, up to and including calling for murder of "them dam libruls", but anybody else...OMG, THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END!

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Can you be fired for saying you could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it ?

Because that strikes me as encouraging violent rhetoric, and, in turn, actual violence. Something should have been done about it sooner.

[MichMan]

5. Of course you can if your employer decides to do so.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Well, the employer has shown appallingly poor judgment so far. nt

[TlalocW]

7. Well, even if you could make the case

That this is different than when conservatives got fired when their employers got pictures of them at Klan rallies, etc. (And you can) people shoukd have been smart enough not to do that because ultimately, it doesn't matter what you do, if your employer thinks your actions coukd hurt his business, you're going bye-bye.

I've been pretty active on Threads. I haven't been criticizing Kirk but the right's reaction to his murder, and I'm tlalocw there as well.

We've had the internet for a few years now. We should be aware of this phenomenon.

[FakeNoose]

8. There isn't much "democracy" or "freedom" in American business these days

I'm retired now, but thinking back on my working days (since the early 1970s) I never had a boss or supervisor who cared one spit about my personal political views. But there were always strict rules about not talking politics in the office, or around customers. If you're dumb enough to do it, you do it at your own peril.

On the other hand, I never squabbled on social media in a way that would reflect back to me, either. Somehow the youngers don't understand why they should take precautions to preserve their own privacy.