Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times ; She Was Fired for a Comment on Her Private Facebook Account
"Within hours, Libs of TikTok, a social media account known for transphobic content and smear campaigns against schools, hospitals and libraries, posted it publicly on its popular X account. Ms. Swierc got her first message 19 minutes later. Elon Musk posted about it. So did Rudy Giuliani. Indiana’s Attorney General, Todd Rokita, also mentioned it on X, calling her comments “vile,” and saying that they “should make people question someone’s ability to be in a leadership position.”...
Five days later, Ms. Swierc was fired from her job as the director of health and advocacy at Ball State, one of more than 145 peoplearound the country who’ve lost their jobs for posting negatively about Mr. Kirk. Mr. Rokita, the attorney general, noted the firing approvingly...
The rash of firings, which are raising questions about the limits of free speech, has been supercharged in Indiana, where top officials have been channeling public anger about posts that criticize Mr. Kirk into a kind of internet hotline, where submissions — that can include someone’s name, social-media posts and employer’s contact information — are displayed publicly on a government website.
The portal, called Eyes on Education, was started early last year as a way for parents of school children to submit examples of “inappropriate materials.” The concept spread to public universities later that year, after the passage of a law intended to take on liberal bias in higher education. Ball State University has its own portal, EthicsPoint, where students can anonymously report professors for biased behavior.
Ms. Swierc’s was the first submission in the Charlie Kirk section of Eyes on Education. As of Saturday, 32 others in education were listed as targets for firing. Mr. Rokita declined to be interviewed for this article."
