Anthony Weiner might be the most recent person to lose his job thanks to his posting on a social network, but he’s not the only one.
In the last few years we’ve seen dozens of instances where individuals, celebrities, athletes and politicians have lost their jobs or been forced to resign because of content posted to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.
Post-Weinergate, we decided to take a look at ten other individuals who have found themselves in hot water thanks to their social media actitivies.
Ashley Payne, a teacher in Barrow County, Georgia, was asked to resign from her job at Apalachee High School in August 2009 because of photographs and status updates she posted to Facebook.
The problem with Payne's updates? They showed her drinking alcohol and one update used an expletive. Payne was on vacation in Europe and some of her photographs included her visits to the Guinness Brewery and a local pub in Dublin.
Payne's Facebook page was private, however she had friended some other teachers in her school. When the principal found out about the photos, she was told to render her resignation or face suspension.
Payne sued the school district in November 2009 because she was "not made aware of her rights."
Anthony Weiner isn't New York politician to get in trouble using social media. In February, Representative Christopher Lee (R- NY) resigned from his post after Gawker published emails the married congressman sent to women on Craigslist.
These emails included photos of a shirtless Lee flexing his muscles for the camera. The Buffalo-area representative resigned less than four hours after Gawker posted the emails and photo.
In March 2009, 22-year old Connor Riley was offered a job at Cisco. Her first instinct -- to tweet about her new opportunity -- is pretty common for most people of her generation.
Unfortunately, Riley's tweet mentioned that taking a "fatty paycheck" would come at the expense of "hating the work." A Cisco employee responded to her tweet, offering to pass her sentiments along to the hiring manager. Riley lost the job before it was even started.
The event, dubbed the "Cisco Fatty" incident, went viral and was a good cautionary tale for individuals of all ages.
In the fall of 2009, former Pro Bowl running back Larry Johnson sent a series of inflammatory tweetsthat got him into some hot water with his employer, the Kansas City Chiefs.
After being suspended for a game for his remarks -- which included derogatory remarks about his coach and a gay slur directed at a fan -- 32,000 Chiefs fans petitioned the team to release Johnson from his contract. The Chiefs obliged.
When someone with access to the @ChryslerAutos Twitter account accidentally dropped the F-bomb back in March, Chrysler was not amused.
After first claiming that its account had been compromised, Chrysler later admitted that the errant tweet was sent by an employee of the social media agency that handles the Chrysler account.
It appears that the employee accidentally tweeted from the wrong account. When a similar situation happened to the Red Cross Twitter account in February, that organization responded with humor and forgiveness. Not so for the agency employee. The mis-directed tweet was enough to cost the employee his or her job.
Veteran war correspondent and NYU fellow at the Center on Law and Security Nir Rosen sparked outrage when he made offensive and insensitive tweets in the wake of the news that CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan had suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault.
Comments like "I'm rolling my eyes at all the attention she'll get" and "it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too," didn't earn Rosen any online friends.
After backtracking and apologizing for his statements -- after first claiming that he didn't know the severity of the attack when he made his comments -- Rosen resigned from NYU.
When California Pizza Kitchen server @Traphik sent a message to the company's Twitter account, proclaiming "black button ups are the lamest shit ever," CPK's response was to fire him.
Tim, a comedian with his own YouTube channel, then posted a humorous account of the incident on YouTube. This went viral, CPK was probably annoyed with tons of tweets and phone calls from Tim's fans, and ultimately, Tim got more exposure for his comedy.
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried isn't exactly known for his tact. Still, when the comedian made jokes about the Japanese Tsunami, the people at Aflac, where Gottfried as served as spokesman, were not pleased.
Aflac fired Gottfried from his role as voice of the Aflac duck and then embarked on an innovativesocial media campaign to find a new spokesduck.
Note to self: Publishing mis-deeds in the workplace is a great way to lose a job.
That's the lesson that some former Domino's Pizza employees learned, and we're glad they did. A few workers filmed themselves doing gross things to food - food that was probably served to customers. They then posted this video to YouTube, because it's all about the lulz.
Fortunately, some investigative work on the part of Consumerist tracked down the employees behind the video. Domino's fired the employees.
One of our favorite memes from earlier this year was a classic video from The Today Show archives featuring Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel attempting to understand the intricacies of the Internet.
Apparently, NBC didn't find the joke that funny (even though the current crew from The Today Showfound it fit to comment on the hilarity) and fired the guy that posted the clip online.
The Weinergate saga may be coming to an end -- now that Representative Anthony Weiner has resigned from his position in the U.S. House of Representatives -- but its repercussions will stay with us.
When the New York City congressman sent a lewd photograph of himself to someone on Twitter as a public tweet rather than a direct message, his social media faux-pas became fodder for comediansand generated public calls for his resignation.
It also opened up a larger discussion about the growing role of social media in politics and the separation between public and private behaviors online.
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