We often hear about, and this column has written about, employers reacting to the social media postings of their employees. But in the recent case of FDRLST Media v. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), ___ F.4^th ___, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 13664 (3d Cir. May 20, 2022), the employer's social media posting, implicating free speech and the National Labor Relations Act, was at issue.

FDRLST Media operates The Federalist, a conservative (the opinion refers to it as a "right-leaning") internet magazine "that publishes commentary on cultural, political and religious issues of current interest, including labor issues." In June 2019, the employees of Vox, a "left-leaning" internet site, walked off the job during union contract negotiations. On June 6, 2019, the publisher of The Federalist, Ben Domenech, tweeted from his personal account to his 80,000 followers: "FYI @fdrlst first one of you tried to unionize I swear I'll send you back to the salt mine." At the time, The Federalist had just seven employees, of whom six were writers and editors.