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A former Brookfield Asset Management senior vice president sued the firm, claiming it wrongfully fired her over a social media post following the murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk.
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Jennifer Kipley, who joined Brookfield’s global client group in 2022, claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York state court that her post about Kirk was misinterpreted and that she became the target of stalking by an “online mob” who demanded she be terminated from her job.
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“Within a 48-hour window, Brookfield made the craven choice to throw Ms. Kipley to the wolves,” her lawyers wrote. She claims the firm’s decision to fire her violated a New York law that prohibits discriminating or retaliating against victims of stalking.
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A spokesperson for Brookfield, which has over US$1 trillion in assets under management, didn’t have an immediate comment on the suit.
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Scores of people lost their jobs over social media posts in the wake of Kirk’s Sept. 10 murder. In many cases, those people’s employers were encouraged to take actions by online activists. Some have challenged their firings, with one Tennessee college professor reportedly winning a US$500,000 settlement along with reinstatement.
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Kipley claims her online speech was legally protected, noting it took place outside of work and was on a personal Instagram account only followed by friends and family. But she also says she wasn’t celebrating anyone’s death. She claims the allegedly offending post was one in which she was responding to the platform’s suggestions that she follow the accounts of President Donald Trump and Turning Point USA, the group Kirk led.
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The post included a selfie of Kipley, the caption “how I feel about Trump and CK in case it’s not clear,” and the scrolling lyrics of an expletive-laden Lily Allen song, according to the suit.
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Kipley claims the post was partly directed at Instagram for serving “her content that was politically anathema to her.” Her lawyers also say she was “simply expressing a moment of frustration towards an administration which, Ms. Kipley believes, has attempted to both assert control over the media and push significant amounts of propaganda upon its citizens.”
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About a week after Kirk’s death, Kipley says she began receiving “unsettling, and even threatening comments” through her Instagram and LinkedIn pages, some asking if she worked at Brookfield. The company’s social media pages were also bombarded with demands that she be fired, according to the suit.
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Until the controversy, Kipley said she had been “well regarded” at Brookfield, receiving swift promotion and at one point overseeing diligence processes for several of the firm’s funds, including one with a US$17 billion target.
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