{"id":45668,"date":"2020-01-07T17:53:52","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T22:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=45668"},"modified":"2020-01-07T17:54:05","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T22:54:05","slug":"social-media-standards-and-government-censorship-aka-lehigh-acres-fire-dept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2020\/01\/social-media-standards-and-government-censorship-aka-lehigh-acres-fire-dept\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media standards and government censorship aka Lehigh Acres Fire Dept"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Robert Anderson Publisher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District, using the social\nmedia site Facebook.com, has expressly created a \u201cforum open to the\npublic.\u201d The Fire District can only prohibit speech that was obscene, sexually\nexplicit, racially derogatory, defamatory, solicits or is an advertisement, and\nthat suggests or encourages illegal activities. But only under Facebook\ncommunity standards rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fire Districts have its own rules governing the Facebook\nand other social media platforms (SOG 100.09.00) posts are here<\/a>\nit states, \u201cAll social media platforms used by the District are designated\nas Limited Public Forums and are subject to the control of the District.\nPosting of any content on any social media platform of the District by any\nvisitor, follower, subscriber or fan, constitutes the user\u2019s agreement and\nacceptance of the terms\/rules of use described in this Social Media Guidelines\ndocument and any other directive of the District.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, want is a \u201cLimited Public Forums\u201d, Fire district?\n\u2026. Facebook is a social networking website by definition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fire Districts Facebook page also states, \u201cIf an\nindividual wishes to use a social media platform of the District\u2019s, the\nindividual, by using the District\u2019s social media platform, is agreeing to abide\nby the District\u2019s Social Media Guidelines and Terms\/Rules of Use, as an initial\nand ongoing condition of the use of the District\u2019s social media platform. These\nguidelines are posted on our website here: <\/strong>https:\/\/www.lehighfd.com\/community\/page\/community-outreach<\/strong><\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lehigh Acres Fire department CAN NOT write new rules for\nits visitors, followers, subscribers or fans that override Facebook community\nstandards rules and \/ or other social media platform rules they use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The district can set standards for employees of the district\nfor social media platforms but how can they set standards visitors, followers,\nsubscribers or fans? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This raises the question of whether government such as the\nLehigh Fire District is obligated to respect the rights of speech on social\nmedia when the speech is critical of the government or if it can simply delete\ncomments that paint the fire district in a bad light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July of 2019, a New York Federal appeals court upheld a\nlower court decision from 2018, which disallowed President Trump to block his\ncritics and naysayers from his personal Twitter account. This decision set a\nfirst-time precedent stipulating that \u201cthe First Amendment does not permit a\npublic official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official\npurposes to exclude persons from an otherwise\u2010open online dialogue because they\nexpressed views with which the official disagrees,\u201d wrote Judge Parker, who was\nnominated to the appeals court by President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Scott and his possible lawsuit against the Fire\nDistrict also adds that there are broader implications, \u201cIt\u2019s not just\nFacebook. Think YouTube and Twitter comments.\u201d Scott\u2019s lawsuit alleges\n\u201cDefendants, by denying Plaintiff\u2019s political speech, caused Plaintiff to lose\na critical opportunity to communicate on topics of importance to society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many government critics have experienced similar censorship\nwhen they post comments on tax-payer funded social media. A fire district has\nnothing to hide and can use social media effectively to serve the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But one thing is obvious: If government such as a fire\ndistrict creates a tax-funded public forum inviting feedback, only to delete\ncomments or ban citizens that are critical, that can probably be defined as\ncensorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Censorship in America? … Generally, the\nterm \u201ccensorship,\u201d when applied to American laws, refers to the\ngovernment’s act of banning or altering media, speech, or\nperformances. This is generally based on the presumption that such materials\nare, or will be, offensive or dangerous to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of\nreligion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of\nspeech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and\nto petition the Government for a redress of grievances.\u201d First Amendment\nof the U.S. Constitution passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified\nDecember 15, 1791.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Richard Pringle the Lehigh Acres Fire Board attorney in\nan email sent to Randy Scott states: \u201cOn multiple occasions in the past, you\nhave placed content on the District\u2019s social media platforms in violation of\nthe District\u2019s Social Media Guidelines.  Initially, the District removed\ncontent you placed on the District\u2019s social media platforms that were in\nviolation of the District\u2019s Social Media Guidelines.  Recently, because of\nadditional violations of the District\u2019s Social Media Guidelines by you, the\nDistrict progressed to taking the corrective action of blocking you from the\nplacement of new content on the District\u2019s social media platforms.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What removed content violated the so-called District\u2019s\nSocial Media Guidelines, Mr. Pringle? Do you even know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We ask Pringle by email to provide the so-called removed content that Scott posted but to date, Pringle has not returned our email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should the Fire District refuse to unhide Scott\u2019s posts, we\nare very sure Scott will be asking the Court for punitive damages for the clear\nreckless and callous indifference to his First Amendment rights. See Smith v.\nWade. 461 U.S. 30, 56, 103 S.Ct. 1625, 75L.Ed.2nd 632 (1983) (Punitive damages\nare available \u201cwhen the defendant\u2019s conduct is shown to be motivated by evil\nmotive or intent, or when it involves reckless or callous indifference to the\nfederally protected rights of others.\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Katie Heck the PIO of the Fire District show evil motive\nor intent, or when it involves reckless or callous indifference to Mr. Scott\u2019s\nposts that are federally protected? This is grounds for the fire board to\nremove Heck from her job. But we do believe that will this not happen for some\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ladies and gentlemen, it is 2020. This year, everything\ncounts. Every battle, every word, every event, and every dollar will go toward\nor against the future of this Fire Department. Mark my words the fire\ncommissioners will go after more money from the taxpayers in November of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That we ask of every single one of you is to make this year\ncount. In whatever capacity you can\u2014Learn the Truth \u2026\u2026. Before it\u2019s too Late\nand FIGHT!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Robert Anderson Publisher The Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue District, using the social media site Facebook.com, has expressly created a \u201cforum open to the public.\u201d The Fire District can… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}