(4/22) Over a year after the social media policy was implemented, the Town Council voted 3 to 2 to reinstate comments on the Town’s Facebook page, with Mayor Kinnaird and Commissioner Wayne Hooper opposing the motion . The old policy restricted comments on the Town’s Facebook page, but allowed comments to remain open on other Town pages, such as "Thurmont Main Street." The policy was initially created to address bullying and threats toward the Council and other residents in Facebook posts.
While comments will be reinstated, Kinnaird reiterated that residents will still be restricted from posting directly to the Town’s Facebook page.
Commissioner Marty Burns, who was not a commissioner when the policy was implemented, requested to revisit the issue due to his concerns about First Amendment rights, a platform in his campaign. "To restrict anyone the ability to address their elected officials, which is what people really were going after, I think is counterproductive to a democratic society," he said.
Town Attorney Leslie Powell reviewed the policy for First Amendment rights issues and told the Council that the Town is constrained under the First Amendment not to delete comments since they are a government entity. However, this does not include comments that involve hateful or harmful speech. The sites can also remove comments that don’t follow their specific guidelines.
Powell said the new policy would allow the Town to have the authority to remove public comments containing obscenities, discrimination, sexual content, illegal activity, and threats to health and safety. Before removing comments, however, administrators of the Facebook page would be obligated to record them through screenshots.
Before voting, Kinnaird told the commissioners that they "will" be subject to rude or threatening comments on the Town Facebook page. When Commissioner Bob Lookingbill told him that he can block them on his personal page, Kinnaird reminded him and the others that they can block residents on personal pages but never on the Town page.
Commissioner Bill Blakeslee, who was a commissioner when the Council voted 4-0 to pass the social media policy a year ago, said he disagreed with restricting comments on Facebook. However, he wouldn’t have voted to create a Town Facebook page in the first place had he been on the Council at the time. "But since it’s on there, you gotta be big boys and accept it. Whatever they say, they say," Blakeslee said. "You can’t just cut it out now."
Hooper stood by the original decision, pointing out that residents can email the Mayor and Commissioners or speak during public comment at the Town meetings. Hooper and Kinnaird were both concerned about the negativity and bullying, especially those that come from two commenters in particular. Kinnaird was also worried about the page being inappropriate for all ages to read due to vulgar language. "To me, the Thurmont Facebook page should be a Facebook page that all ages can read," he said.
Kinnaird also mentioned that some residents will ask for assistance on Facebook that requires action, which then gets lost in the comments. He was concerned that residents will ask for requests or repairs via Facebook rather than the appropriate methods.
