A week ago today, Brad Knudson posted the YouTube video embedded below in response to a bullying incident where two twin boys in his Minnesota home town bullied his adopted, African-American daughter via a series of offensive and racist SnaptChat Videos. The bullies sent four videos, he saved on by videotaping it.
The video, through the fervency of the internet last week, resulted in over five million views today, and a Washington Post Article indicating that the bullying twins’ father, whom is also recorded in a voice-mail making racist and homophobic comments regarding the incident, was fired from his job.
While I’ve always understood that an employer can fire you for bringing bad business upon them, I always thought of it as an “efficient breach” circumstance, where the cost of a wrongful termination or discrimination lawsuit is less than the cost of bad press. It turns out, most social media posts can subject you to termination from your employment, and only truthful, non-confidential statements about your employer are subject to any protection from disciplinary action.
Furthermore, if websites like Getting Racists Fired only post factual information about information you’ve disseminated on Twitter or Facebook, they haven’t committed defamation; however, they may have committed other torts (like tortious interference with business relationships, or false light).
All in all, racism and homophobia have economic consequences in the information age.
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