CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Montgomery County Government proposed a resolution to the County Commission on Monday to create a social media policy for both the community and county employees.
However, a number of commissioners questioned the language in the policy, with one asking if it violates constituents’ First Amendment rights under the Constitution.
Commission speaks on concerns over policy language
Commissioner David Shelton said he spent years creating websites, so he understands the importance of having a social media policy. However, he said some of the language in the resolution needs to be addressed.
Shelton addressed two bullet points, one stating the county has the right to monitor, prohibit, restrict, block, suspend, terminate, delete or discontinue one’s access to any official county social media page. The other references the county’s right to remove, delete, block, filter or restrict any materials one posts on a county page.
“My concern with this, is there are really no guidelines on how that is done,” Shelton said at Monday’s commission meeting. “This is something that could be used, with the language that I see, it could be used to allow the official sites to remove or block users simply for an opinion.”
Montgomery County Attorney Tim Harvey said that on page two, there’s a listing of statements on when a contribution may be removed.
Content could be removed, for example, if it targets different groups of people, shares confidential information, is libelous, harassing, sexually explicit, or otherwise inappropriate. However, also included is the ability to remove content that could be considered “embarrassing.”
Commissioner Joshua Beal questioned the policy’s provision allowing the county to block someone’s access. Beal made a distinction between deleting a post, blocking a person from commenting, and blocking a person from having access to government social media pages.
“You believe the wording indicates that; I’ll take a look at that,” Harvey said.
First Amendment rights of constituents
Commissioner Jeremiah Walker asked Harvey how close the county is to violating constituents’ First Amendment rights with the proposed policy.
“I can’t stress enough the fact that the policy may be constitutionally valid, and the question’s going to be in the implementation of the execution of the policy,” Harvey said. “So, if you remove a comment of violence from the post, I don’t think you’re violating anything, but you may be called upon to prove that it was a true violent comment.
“That’s why I use the example of, ‘The official made me so angry, I’m going to slap him the next time I see him.’ That doesn’t sound like a serious threat of violence. Maybe it does to you, maybe it doesn’t, but that’s the kind of hair-splitting you get into with implementation,” he said.
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“The thing I’m trying to emphasize about our policy is we have no policy currently in place. So, if someone complains about our website handling, I’m making a decision without any policy in place whatsoever. I want to have some uniform policy, and this is a uniform policy attempt, which I think as a policy, is appropriate and constitutionally valid,” Harvey said.
Who makes the determination?
Walker asked who makes the determination on whether a comment should be removed.
“Somebody makes it every day and has been the whole time we’ve been here,” Harvey responded. “We have social media posts everywhere. I try to handle them all appropriately but let’s say someone complains that their post was removed from the XYZ department webpage. I’ve been tackling those the best I could to determine if it was properly analyzed, was it properly handled, what do we need to do.”
Harvey said that over the last two years, they’ve had a dozen or more complaints about how Montgomery County handles their social media pages.
What’s next for social media policy?
County Mayor Wes Golden said Montgomery County wants to make sure rights are protected and put the right policies in place to ensure that they are.
Harvey said he will take a look at the language in the policy following feedback at Monday’s meeting.
The County Commission will meet next on Monday, Feb. 9, for their formal meeting.
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