WASHINGTON D.C. (WSAU) – The public can, in some circumstances, sue government officials who block or silence their accounts on social media, the U.S. Supreme Court decided unanimously on Friday morning.
According to the Associated Press, Justice Amy Coney Barrett stated in her ruling that social media accounts can be considered official channels of communication if the user “possessed the actual authority to speak on the state’s behalf” and “purported to exercise that authority.”
The court concluded in the two cases involving complaints filed by people who were blocked after writing critical remarks on the social media accounts of Southern California school board members and a city manager in Port Huron, Michigan which drew comparisons to a 2019 lawsuit against former President Trump’s move to block critics from his personal then-Twitter account, now known as X but after Trump left the White House in January 2021, the justices dismissed the lawsuit.
Comments