Apple now legally allowed to fire employees for Facebook comments

Freedom of speech is clearly dead. Crisp, a now “former” Apple employee, has lost his job for negatively commenting about Apple products on Facebook.

According to ifoAppleStore:

The British government’s Employment Tribunal has upheld Apple’s firing of a retail store employee who posted negative comments about the stores and the company on Facebook, saying the company had a formal and clear policy that prohibited negative comments posted to social media Web sites.

Crisp took his fight to the UK labor agency and lost his case because, “Apple, ‘made it absolutely plain throughout the induction process that commentary on Apple products, or critical remarks about the brand, were strictly prohibited,'” despite the comments being made on a private Facebook page. According to legal analyst Addleshaw Goddard LLP, Apple won because the remarks made by Crisp could potentially be damaging to the brand.

It’s no surprise that Apple took the comments seriously since it’s been well documented that the company typically takes this approach. What is a little bit surprising is that a court agreed with Apple’s move to fire an employee for their comments posted on a “private” social network.

Word to the wise: if you hate your employer or you hate something they’re doing, don’t take your complaints to a social network; take your grievances to the pub instead.

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.