Southern Brooklyn constituents call on pols to end social media blocking
Now that not one, but two federal courts have deemed the attempts of elected officials to block constituents on social media a direct violation of the First Amendment, five grassroots groups in southern Brooklyn have banded together to pen a petition targeted at three elected officials they say have censored those who criticize them, calling on the trio to remove the blocks and allow for full transparency moving forward.
The pols in the hot seat — Congressmember Dan Donovan, state Senator Marty Golden and Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis, all Republicans — have all blocked constituents they don’t agree with, Jennifer Gaboury, an organizer with South Brooklyn Progressive Resistance (SBPR), one of the groups behind the petition, told this paper.
“I personally have not been blocked, but I know plenty of people who have,” she said, stressing that a number of blocks that she has seen have come around times of vocal activism, though, that’s not always the case. “One of the things that’s been the most troubling to us is that it seems really arbitrary in terms of who is getting blocked.”