POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A national free-speech advocacy group is challenging social media policies used by the Polk County Sheriff's Office, arguing some of the rules governing comments on its Facebook pages may violate the First Amendment.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), sent a letter to the sheriff's office raising concerns about the agency's moderation policies, including those used on the Polk County Animal Control Facebook page.
The letter comes after animal-rights advocate Eve Salimbene says her organizations raised concerns about Polk County Animal Control at county commission meetings, directly with the agency and on social media.
Salimbene is president of the Street Cat Project of Polk County and the Coalition for Animal Rights and Education.
She says the groups have raised concerns about the Animal Control facility, its funding and what she describes as a high euthanasia rate.
“We have talked about the horrific building and how bad the building is,” Salimbene said. “How old it is, there’s no air-conditioning. There’s no heat. We’ve talked about the high euthanasia rate, which is the highest in the state of Florida.”
Salimbene says her group eventually noticed some of its comments were no longer visible to other users on the Sheriff's Office and Animal Control Facebook pages.
“We would make a comment and if they didn’t like the comment, it would show up as if it was there, but then when someone else went to look, it was not there,” she said.
Salimbene says the group contacted FIRE about its concerns.
In its letter, FIRE argues that some of PCSO's social media rules are unconstitutional because they allow the agency to remove comments it considers “inappropriate,” “offensive,” "vulgar," or “trolling,” among other restrictions.
“They’re against specific types of viewpoints that people can express, allowing the government to determine what kind of things are offensive and shouldn’t be on the social media pages. That’s one problem,” said Brennen VanderVeen, program counsel for FIRE. “Another one is that a lot of the terms are just unconstitutionally vague to where it gives the government way too much discretion.”
FIRE is asking the sheriff's office to revise its social media policies and unblock users who may have been improperly blocked.
The sheriff's office told Tampa Bay 28 it is still reviewing the letter.
Salimbene says some people who were previously blocked have since been reinstated following FIRE's involvement.
“I’d like to see more cooperation, more discussion, more personal interviews, more personal discussions and meetings,” Salimbene said. “They will not meet with us in person at all, so they give us no other option but to discuss it on social media.”
FIRE has asked the sheriff's office to provide a substantive response by Wednesday.
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