One of the core purposes of the First Amendment is to allow people, regardless of their views, to hold the government accountable through expression. So, if your elected representative has an official Facebook page where she invites comments, can she block you from commenting because you criticize her work?
According to a federal appeals court, the answer is a resounding no.
On Monday, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the interactive portion of a public official’s Facebook page is a “public forum,” so an official cannot block people from it because of the opinions they hold.
The case arose after the chair of a local board of supervisors in Virginia, Phyllis Randall, briefly blocked a critic from her official Facebook page and deleted a comment he made about her colleagues’ management of public funds.
The critic, Brian Davison, represented by the Knight First Amendment Institute, filed a lawsuit arguing that Randall had violated his First Amendment rights by removing him from a public forum — space the government makes available for people’s expressive activity — because she disagreed with his views. Randall countered that she has the authority to control the page’s content — including the comments. (President Trump has used some of the same arguments in a lawsuit against him for blocking people on Twitter.)
We filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Davison, arguing that officials cannot prevent people from joining in a public conversation because of their viewpoints, and the three-judge appeals court panel agreed.
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16 comments:
Ha ha ha, love this. Whoever he has blocked, go after him.
Excellent! Now go to the websites of politicians who actually pay people with OUR money to police their websites for comments they don't like.
This'll put a new spin on things. Let's see how interesting it gets.
Jake Day deletes comments all the time if he doesn’t approve. He is on arrogant pompous $ss.
He needs the old electric shock treatment used years ago in the treatment of mental illness, he cannot put two thoughts together or think anything through get away from the mirror Jake, quit eating the Captain Crunch cereal,you are too old for cartoons, the building blocks, and Lincoln logs you play with are not real-----GROW UP NOW OR LEAVE SALISBURY!!!!!!!!!!
Great Idea 9:44,
but be careful because those folks don't play be rules,
they might find that you committed "suicide" by shotgun to the back of the head like Clinton's friends.
If were gonna do it we need to all do it in mass, they can't kill all of us LOL!
I wouldn't think Day would want to block anyone from commenting on either his political or personnel pages since he loves scouring social media all day and telling people he's right about everything and they're wrong. Little guy has a Napoleon issue.
No fear that he'll block me or delete my comment. Why? Because it's been abundantly clear for quite some time that addressing him directly is a waste of my time.
Ignoring him to the greatest extent possible is the best way to bruise his feelings. His little zombie group of followers will have to shoulder the burden of stroking his ego; even they will eventually grow weary.
And if he's being abusive to his family as some have alleged, hope they can muster the courage to call for help and intervention.
Jake Duh-aaay
Putz.
He is abusive no doubt about it!
Hahaha.....Jake Day you think your so smart!
Hahaha.....Jake Day you think your so smart!
So if you post a comment to Jake Day's FB page and he deletes it make sure you already screen captured it.
just like Sherrif Mike Lewis and Richardson @ the Sherrif office
little minds ...little Peter
da boi mare, the arrogant baboons ass.
He is abusive.....hear my words!
Someone needs to make sure Jake Day sees this post! He deletes posts that he doesn't like constantly. He truly is an arrogant, stupid individual. He's ruining what was left of Salisbury.
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