Exactly. We wouldn't expect silence from a factory worker who saw working conditions contribute to the death of a coworker, so why should we expect it from a tech worker who witnesses the same?
Facebook trying to suppress this worker's voice is morally abhorrent.
Part of the problem is a lot of internal conversation about suicide can actually trigger surviving people with suicidal tendencies. It’s a pragmatic recommendation supported by the medical community to limit communication related to a suicide; it’s not just a PR move.
However I think we need to weight that risk with the risk that future suicides will occur for the same reason as the first, not inspired by the first, if the circumstances that lead to the first suicide are left unresolved. Addressing those circumstances means having an honest discussion about what happened, which can only happen if people are allowed to talk about it.
(Obviously glorification/etc of the suicide should be strictly off limits. There need to be guardrails on the discussion to mitigate risk.)
You don't have to follow company rules - but again, company can terminate you with or without reason. In this particular case, Yi was fired because he's "lack of judgement", after Yi spoke to the press without formal approval and acknowledging he works for Facebook and refused to agree to the gap order warning.
Regardless, whether FB is hiding anything, speaking in front of the media representing the company without proper authorization is a common sense taboo. Yi should have know that better during first month of new employee training bootcamp. Also, this is not a of case of whistleblowing as Yi was simply protesting, he neither knew first hand nor had any evidence of FB wrongdoing. Having a gag order in place is not necessarily an indication of wrongdoing(FB has had enough negative news lately already and any more of it will affect their bottomline), although lots of time it is, but we simply don't know.
Facebook trying to suppress this worker's voice is morally abhorrent.