U.S. Supreme Court issues guidance for when government officials can block users on social media
On March 15, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued an opinion in two cases related to the question of whether officeholders are acting as private citizens or government officials when they use social media to post about their official government duties. The court issued one ruling for both cases, offering a two-part test for evaluating the public or private status of a public official’s social media account:
“We hold that such speech is attributable to the State only if the official (1) possessed actual authority to speak on the State’s behalf, and (2) purported to exercise that authority when he spoke on social media.”
