Freedom of speech only means the government cant supress your speech.
There is no freedom of speech when it comes to the corporate envirronment, and even less when you are a public figure of a business.
So this is not a freedom of speech issue. Eich is free to say whatever he wants, and Mozilla is free to decide wether what Eich says is compatible with its CEO position or not.
I guess the Freedom of Speech many refer to is from the US Constitution which means the government cannot restrict (to certain extents) what you say or your right to believe what you are saying. Your views (in speech or whatever medium you prefer) will definitely be judged by others. It's a bit silly to assume you can't be punished (diminutive or otherwise) for the freedom to speak (your mind).
Well, that's a bug in freedom of speech then. Other freedoms don't work like that. They protect you from all actors, not just the state. For example, your employer can't fire you for being gay. They shouldn't be able to fire you for your political views either.
The freedom to assemble doesn't mean that private owners can't keep you from assembling on their property. The freedom of press doesn't mean that the editors can't censor your work. The freedom to bear arms doesn't mean that private businesses can't bar you from the premises.
Which means, in practice, that people can't necessarily use those freedoms. If most or all public spaces are privately-owned how do you exercise your freedom to assemble? Now that most of the communication channels people use are privately owned, how much freedom of speech do we really have?
Actual freedoms themselves don't work that way, just the codifications of them in the US "Bill of Rights". Given what was discovered about complexity-induced logical contradictions in the 1930's and the subsequent wholesale implementation of such, this should be considered a P0 bug.
I absolutely cringe every time someone pulls out the "freedom from government suppression" card. Its amazing how quick people are to put the principle of freedom of speech into a box when it suits their agenda. Absolutely shameful. Freedom of speech is an idea that permeates the very core of our society. That people now want to constrain it to simply government suppression is a sad commentary of our culture.
Just about every aspect of our lives are ruled by corporations, and definitely every avenue of communication. I absolutely refuse to accept that corporations can control what is acceptable for me to say. This is exactly the road you guys are going down when you make statements like this.
"Freedom of speech is the political right to communicate one's opinions and ideas using one's body and property to anyone who is willing to receive them."
How was that taken away from him? The freedom of speech doesn't include the ability to hold onto a specific job when you exercise your speech rights. That idea is downright silly.
