the Fayette County Sheriff's department will be deleted today by two o'clock it's 12 34. sorry um you know I'm getting bashed and get messages but people are just so rude and unfair I often get the question can public officials block me or delete my messages on social media isn't that a First Amendment violation well some more West Virginia news today the Fayette County West Virginia Sheriff's department has just deleted its own Facebook page following negative comments that they've received following a local incident here's what the sheriff said about why he did it sorry but I'm getting bashed and getting messages people are just so rude and unfair he said they would just delete the negative comments but they did that once before and got sued so the only option is to delete the page we deleted comments before and got in trouble for that he said why is the public so upset at this sheriff's department and what is the law on this can an official government social media page block you or delete your comments what about a personal one belonging to a public official [Music] first of all this stems from a really tragic incident that happened in the past couple of days an 11 week old little boy died after being Swept Away by high water his mother drove into on Friday a mother that was driving the vehicle apparently misjudged the depth of the water and drove and drove into the road until she realized it was too deep deputies said that she tried to get the baby from the vehicle when it was Swept Away Crews later found the vehicle submerged in about 18 feet deep water with the infant still inside at about 2 30 pm on Friday and this was reported by West Virginia metro news then for some reason and I didn't personally observe this so I don't know what the nature of the criticism was people started posting critical comments on the Sheriff's Department's Facebook page a review of one of the local news stories on Facebook doesn't show anything that pops out to me is even remotely critical of the sheriff's department regarding this incident however I can't really look now because the sheriff deleted the page he did post a video explaining why he did it here it is I look awful all right just coming on him real quick I know people's upset about these comments and stuff we try to go through and get rid of the ones that are bad um just let people know what's happened is um we did that before and we got sued so the only option is that we disable our page and turn it off so the Fayette County Sheriff's department will be deleted today by two o'clock it's 12 34. sorry um you know I'm getting bashed and get messages but people are just so rude and unfair to everybody um we did it that way before not having comments but got courts can't go into details about it because the page opened so many years ago with um with comments aloud so you can't go in and say no more comments then we deleted comments before um and got in trouble for that so people are just rude and uncaring and I'm sorry but um I'm praying for the family pray for our First Responders it's just a terrible terrible thing but as of two o'clock today there will be no more effect County Sheriff's Department Facebook page I'm sorry so um I'll send information to the news still and everything like that we just try to keep you updated on certain things and from now on um the only option I have so I'm sorry I'm sorry it does come to this um Prairie still for that family and two people that made comments and stuff that you're right that's their freedom and that's the country we live in and I'm sorry it comes out so um can't delete them not going to it's not rude then it costs you as taxpayers and the county money so the Pitt County Sheriff's Department page will be deleted at two o'clock today that way people can see this real quick um have a great day and carry on well there it is and that really does go to the heart of the First Amendment the public expressing criticism of their public officials they should be allowed to do it government doesn't have feelings we know that the West Virginia ACLU has previously been involved with this issue they actually sent a letter to all the members of the West Virginia legislature about this attempting to warn them from violating First Amendment rights on social media they also have this handy flow chart which I'll show you in a minute so here's the basic law as you can read in this letter which I'll I'll uh I'll link in the description the first amendment protects the right to criticize public officials period New York Times versus Sullivan from the 60s but it's not just limited to newspapers the Supreme Court has referred to social media as a modern Public Square packingham versus North Carolina is the case when the government provides a forum for speech such as a Facebook page or even a YouTube channel the government actor may not exclude certain speech or actors from that Forum on the base basis of their viewpoints in 2019 the fourth circuit which is applicable here in West Virginia held that an elected official's Facebook page on which she discussed certain upcoming events and Community issues constituted a quote public forum and that the official engaged in unconstitutional Viewpoint discrimination when she banned a constituent from her Facebook page that was Davison versus Randall the court found that the official acted under color of law when she banned the constituent constituent because she treated the Facebook page as a quote tool of governance similarly I once sued a notorious West Virginia state senator for an under color of law civil rights violation due to a rant about a constituent on his Facebook page I'll link that video if you want to watch it thus it's now settled case law in the fourth circuit that a constituents constitutional rights extend to comments made on a public official social media page an official may not block protected speech on an account that's dedicated get to their official duties officials May however delete speech that's not considered protected under the Constitution such as speech that makes a true and immediate threat to another person speech that incites others to imminently violate the law or contains obscene language as is very narrowly defined by the Supreme Court in the case of Miller versus California this is not limited to social media accounts that are officially noted or categorized as an official page of a public official this can also extend to a public official's personal social media accounts if that account is used to discuss public matters or for other public purposes and this is actually just what happened in my West Virginia state senate case the courts will look at the content of the page not just the title and for that reason the West Virginia ACLU developed this handy flow chart and this chart is actually very helpful if you're trying to quickly and easily understand what the law is on this so here given the fact that the Fayette County Sheriff's Department Facebook page is both in title and in substance an official account there's really no question that they could not delete comments and posters on their Facebook page just based on the viewpoints that they don't like especially critical ones because those are highly protected at least not unless they contain speech that is not protected such as threats for the narrow types of obscenities which mind you as far as police go as I've discussed in other videos F the police has been found multiple times to be protected speech so yes if a law enforcement agency does not want to have their feelings hurt or is upset by comments that they are receiving they can just delete the page but they cannot delete the viewpoints so as always thanks for watching if you enjoyed discussing current events and the application of constitutional law to those events Please Subscribe share and comment if any of you have any idea idea what people were so upset about at the sheriff's department by all means please let me know in a comment remember freedom is scary deal with it I'll see you next time [Music]