A private company cannot violate anyone's First Amendment rights. This is moronic.
While I tend to be libertarian on issues like this, I have to ask this question:
If I, as a private citizen, coerce someone into silence, am I violating their civil rights? If I coerce a group of people as a private citizen, am I? And assume I am not breaking some law to do so, like pointing a gun or making threats such as burning down one's house with them in it, etc.
This is a grey area it seems. As an employer, if I have an employee espousing the virtues of Soviet communism, I'm probably going to want to bounce them. But what if they are espousing unionization? While I'm not a fan of unions, that kind of speech seems to have protection in some states and on a federal level. However, right to work states get around that by being able to fire for no cause, although that may not be in the best interest of the company.
But have thought of one solution to companies who use their technology to squash speech and influence elections, regardless of side;
Strip them of their patents and copyright protections of their software code. Facebook, want to pick and choose what people can say, boom, your' source is now available for anyone to use to allow those that you squelched a platform. I suspect that would halt some of this faster than one can say "boo."
I would consider an exemption if the company comes out and is open about their position and what they are doing. I lean towards punishing those who lie and claim they are neutral. But this is a slippery slope...