But what if you don?t like it?

A federal appeals court in Virginia has validated employee online political speech – at least in this case – and granting it the same protection as if the employee were to voice an opinion.

The background: It’s hard to believe – or maybe it isn’t – that when B.J. Roberts was elected the sheriff of Hampton, Virginia, he fired department employees who had Facebook liked his opponent’s campaign page. The fired employees took the matter to court.

When it reached a federal appeal, the court said:

“In the context of a political campaign’s page, the meaning that the user approves of the candidacy whose page is being liked is unmistakable. That a user may use a single mouse click to produce that message that he likes the page instead of typing the same message with several individual key strokes is of no constitutional significance.”

This action is no rare occurrence. As Speed Matters reported last May, social media has become a national workplace issue, one often handled by the National Labor Relations Board. We wrote: “Acting Labor Board General Counsel Lafe Solomon noted that there has been a “strong uptick” in the number of social media cases handled by the Board, including over 100 cases involving social media since 2010.”

However, as Brian Fung of The Washington Post noted, the implications of the decision are anything but clear. “Take the Facebook like widget beside this article,” wrote Fung, “If clicking that button is a form of speech, does that imply that all the sharing buttons beneath it are also opportunities for speech?” Or, he asked, how does this apply to a Tweet button? This is clearly not the final word on the subject.

Speed Matters thinks we 'like' this.

Facebook ‘like’ is protected by 1st Amendment, appeals court rules (LA Times, Sep. 18, 2013)

Protecting online free speech in the workplace (Speed Matters, May 30, 2013)

Your Facebook ‘Like’ is constitutionally protected speech (Washington Post, Sep. 18, 2013)