Because there’s nothing more emblematic of our First Amendment freedoms than detailing the character flaws of your employer to your 26 followers on Twitter, labor regulators have ruled such speech totally protected.
Adapting a 1935 legislation — which basically gave you the right to shit-talk at the water cooler — for the 21st century, the National Labor Relations Board has made it illegal for virtually all private sector companies to adopt broad social media policies that ban company criticism and “disrespectful” commentary online.
The Atlantic, following it’s sponsored Scientology advertorial blunder, issued a related memo to employees last week stating: “We most certainly should not speak to the press or use social media to attack our organization or our colleagues.” That’s pretty much void of meaning now.
Threats, harassment, libel, all that good stuff is still off-limits though, and will likely put you out of a job.
