After suing former governor Matt Bevin over his practice of blocking citizens from his social media accounts, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has reached a settlement with current governor Andy Beshear.
The ACLU-KY asserted in its lawsuit that “thousands of Kentuckians had been silenced for making constitutionally protected comments on the Governor’s Office’s official social media accounts,” according to the organization’s press release announcing the settlement.
As part of the settlement, the Office of the Governor has adopted a new “social media policy” that outlines the conditions under which a commenter may be blocked, including certain “prohibited content.” The policy lists the following as prohibited content:
- Malicious or harmful software;
- Advertisements, promotions, or solicitations of a commercial product or service;
- Confidential, personally identifying, or private information;
- Material that, taken as a whole: appeals to the prurient interest in sex; describes or portrays sexual conduct in a patently offensive way; or contains explicit sexual content that does not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;
- Threatening statements within the meaning of KRS 508.075 to 508.0801 or harassment within the meaning of KRS 525.070(1)(a), (b), (d), (e), or (f); or
- SPAM, consisting of disruptive and repetitive unsolicited messages sent indiscriminately on the Internet to a large number of recipients or posted in a large number of places.
The policy also has provision to provide notice to individuals who are blocked, as well an an appeal process.
From the press release:
“This settlement represents a great victory for Kentuckians’ First Amendment rights in digital spaces,” said ACLU of Kentucky Legal Director Corey Shapiro. “The agreement enables social media users to share feedback with the Governor’s Office without worrying their comment will be deleted or that they will be permanently banned or blocked from accessing information from these important information channels.”
“Governor Beshear’s robust, clear policy is one that other government agencies and officials would do well to model,” said ACLU of Kentucky Staff Attorney Heather Gatnarek. “Electronic communication is at an all-time high during the current health pandemic. It is now more important than ever that people have access to their elected representatives and official government channels online, and that their views can be shared and seen by others.”
The new social media policy has been posted on the governor’s web site.
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