Within days of American conservative Charlie Kirk’s assassination, people posting on social media or commenting on his death – including TV host Jimmy Kimmel, teachers, pilots, a football team employee, and a US Secret Service employee – were being censured, suspended or sacked.
Whether you support or oppose those decisions, it’s striking they occurred in the United States, which has strong constitutional protections for free speech. But even those rights don’t necessarily shield people from workplace consequences when reputational harm or a breach of a code of conduct is alleged.
