Can a company fire you because of your personal social website?

The fact is that most businesses prohibit social networking on company time or posting anything negative about the company. Therefore, if your employor had a social networking policy and you violated it, that could be grounds for dismissal or at least disciplinary action.

Chances are you were in an "at will" employment relationship. This means that your employer could discharge you for any reason or no reason at all, so long as it did not violate any employment contract, union agreement that may have existed, or constitute unlawful discrimination. Accordingly, unless social networking at the work was part of your job duties, they should have refrained from engaging in such activity. 

It should be noted that while an employer has the right to take some form of action against an employee regarding prohibited uses of social media at work, if it has such a policy, it must enforce the policy and punish any use, not just the conduct that can result in disparaging the company. Additionally, many jurisdictions have laws which prohibit an employer from disciplining its employees from certain conduct outside of the workplace; many are written broadly enough to cover online activity. Finally, a social networking policy that is too restrictive may be a violation of an employee’s rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Section 7 of the Act protects an employee's rights to participate in “concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” Therefore, this section gives employees the right to speak out in an effort to improve conditions in the workplace. Consequently, social networking policies that prohibit such online activity that might be considered a violation an employee’s Section 7 rights.

Yes, unfortunately, they probably can fire you because of what is on your personal website.

However, they cannot fire you in retaliation for protected conduct such as complaining about race, age, gender, or disability discrimination or whistleblowing about the company's illegal activities. So if, for example, they fired you because your website stands up against racism at work, that would be a wrongful termination. 

If you have any questions about how this applies to your situation, you should contact a local attorney who specializes in wrongful termination cases.