Went to a small bookstore in Austin and found they canceled a local author's book signing

I was at BookPeople in Austin last Saturday and overheard the staff talking about how they pulled a signing for a local poet named Sarah something. Apparently she posted something on Twitter about a political issue like 5 years ago and someone dug it up. The manager told a customer that they "don't want to platform hate speech" but it was just her saying she didn't like a certain policy. I think this is getting out of hand when you lose a book signing over a 5 year old opinion. Has anyone else seen their local shops cancel events over tweets people forgot about?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellaperry23d ago

Ask the shop directly if they have a written policy about social media history.

piper77923d ago

Totally agree with @stellaperry on this. I actually had a shop pull an old tweet from years ago where I complained about a manager, and they used it to deny my application on the spot. It was a huge shock, and I wish I had asked upfront about their social media policy first before even applying. Now I always tell people to get that written rule in black and white before sharing any account info with a potential employer.

murphy.aaron23d ago

Man I was honestly on the fence about this kind of thing before, but hearing how they used a random old tweet against you really makes me rethink letting employers snoop through my accounts. Did you ever check if that was even legal where you were?