Rep. Taylor defends booting opponents off Facebook page; critics claim free speech rights violated – Virginian-Pilot

Some opponents of Rep. Scott Taylor are crying foul that the Virginia Beach Republican is blocking their comments on his personal Facebook page.

Its true that some peoples comments or postings are removed, but Taylor is well within his rights to do so, his political director, Scott Weldon, said Wednesday. Democrats arent allowed to rabble-rouse on the legislators personal page, Weldon said.

However, the head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said Wednesday that Taylor may be violating the Constitutions First Amendment protection of free speech.

Taylor and Weldon, who have conferred with House of Representatives administrators, disagree. They argue that constituents have many other ways, including another Facebook site, to speak to the lawmaker.

The dispute, sparked by some members of local groups formed to oppose President Donald Trumps administration, centers on one of Taylors two Facebook pages.

He has removed several comments that he or Weldon decided were disagreeable from Taylors self-described unofficial political page that he started almost a decade ago.

However, they say no public comments are removed unless they are deemed abusive or profane from his official Congressman Scott Taylor page that was set up after he took office in January but wasnt used until three weeks ago.

Beach resident Kimberly Anne Tucker, who oversees the anti-Trump Indivisible 757 Facebook group, said Taylor is wrongly blocking critics or those he disagrees with from posting on his personal page.

Its a venue for constituents in the 2nd Congressional District to reach their representative, said Tucker, who led protest chants at Taylors town hall forums two weeks ago.

My major concern is accessibility, said Tucker, who contacted the ACLU seeking assistance. It was not our understanding that it was a personal Facebook page because he had been holding town halls, doing surveys.

Taylor said his personal page is not a platform for his opponents to have free rein to speak out to its more than 55,000 followers. The page has been used regularly by Taylor and his supporters for election or legislative information, comments and news reports, as well as for offering live and recorded video of his town halls.

Every campaign in this nation does that. We have that discretion, he said. If you want to be able to come on my unofficial Facebook and troll it say bad things and be offensive or abusive I dont think so.

Taylor notes that his relatively new official page, which has just under 200 followers, does not remove comments as long as they dont violate his standards for abuse or profanity. He said comments that offer different political views are not removed.

Claire Guthrie Gastaaga, executive director of the states ACLU, said Taylors personal page can be viewed as a protected limited public forum that constituents use to reach their congressional representative.

Its no different than a city council meeting, she said.

I think there are some pretty significant questions raised about whether hes engaged in viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment in a limited public forum, Gastaaga said. He was using the Facebook page as a place to meet his constituents and engage them. It means you cannot discriminate based on the content of the speech.

Taylor argues there is no free-speech restriction because all of his constituents can reach him or his staff by many mediums including Facebook, email, traditional mail, telephone or a visit to his office.

He acknowledged his decision to remove comments that he dislikes can upset opponents.

Its the members discretion, and then of course you have to deal with your constituency, he said.

The Congressional Research Service advised federal legislators in an October report that they can have non-official social media accounts, such as campaign or personal accounts separate from their official web pages. Those non-official accounts cant use government resources.

Weldon, who said he is paid by Taylors campaign to be its part-time political director in addition to his full-time congressional job as Taylors communications director, noted he works on the unofficial page only while away from his government duties.

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Rep. Taylor defends booting opponents off Facebook page; critics claim free speech rights violated - Virginian-Pilot