This honestly reads like satire. Why were they "distressed" by this and who could possibly be affected or offended by something so trivial?
Depending on the demographics of the authors they represent, it may well be a significant negative for their business to be associated with those platforms.
Companies in the states appear to wear their political allegiances as a badge of honour eliciting an us-or-them reaction. Left and Right ideologies often have wants which flip from side to side, generation to generation.
It's worrying and baffling that someone's source of income can be severed when there has been no evidence of misconduct.
Isn't this a feature of at will employment?. I know there are some protected attributes, but I was under the impression you could be fired for pretty much anything outside of those protected attributes.
You have zero idea what evidence there is and isn't. The evidence has not been revealed by those involved, and it certainly hasn't been published in this short article you just read.
You just assumed that "she used two sites" was the absolute entirety of the story.
If there was further evidence she did not feel the need to disclose further. However it does appear that mentioning the association was enough justification.
Also the complaints that were aired didn't provide any further evidence other than the fact that she was on the platform. Again only providing the association as the source of the concern.
How do we get from that to a very public firing over a space of a few hours? More evidence may come to light but there are several things very problematic about this.
What exactly were they "used" for?
Indeed workers rights in the US are among the weakest in the developed world. As shocked as I was at the weak protections in the UK when I moved here, even the UK is magnitudes better in this respect.
Yet this kind of worker hostile environment is what US voters keeps voting for.
How did these people get so radicalized such that speech they don't like is "extremist"?
The same kind of people were saying its fine if you get deplatformed from Twitter, but now want to ostracize you for using the alternatives.