Michael Karlis
An Animal Care Services response vehicle parks outside the department's West Side headquarters.
The decision comes a week after free-speech watchdog the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) sent a letter to ACS accused it of violating the First Amendment. As a government entity, the city department is barred from deleting critical comments from its social media forums, FIRE argued.
ACS deleted some 400 comments from its Facebook page in May, FIRE found in an investigation. About 80% of the deleted comments concerned the department's euthanasia policies.
"This is a big win for the First Amendment rights of San Antonians," FIRE Director of Public Policy Advocacy Aaron Terr told the Current in a Wednesday email. "They're now free to express their views on the important topic of animal euthanasia without facing government censorship."
In its letter, FIRE gave the city until Sept. 25 to respond and avoid further action. Terr said the City Attorney's Office sent a response agreeing with FIRE's position and "promising" that ACS will no longer delete negative social media comments.
Although private groups, including Facebook, have the legal right to restrict certain speech on their platforms in the United States, government entities can't, Terr said.
"This case reinforces an important principle: the government can't censor speech online any more than it can offline," Terr said. "Whether you're speaking at a city council meeting, in a public park or in the comment section of a government-run social media page, the First Amendment protects you."
Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter| Or sign up for our RSS Feed
