A report in The Washington Post notes that the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond rejected a lower court's opinion that clicking the ubiquitous 'thumbs up' icon was not 'actual speech', an opinion that would have had wide-ranging implications for millions of Facebook users and other new forms of expression on the web if it had stood. '(Liking) is the Internet equivalent of displaying a political sign in one's front yard, which the Supreme Court has held is substantive speech,' the three judge panel wrote in their 81-page opinion. The ruling grew out of a lawsuit brought by Hampton sheriff's deputies, one of whom claimed he was fired for liking the campaign page of his boss' opponent. Daniel Ray Carter Jr said the dismissal violated his First Amendment rights in the 2011 suit, the report states. Full report in The Washington Post