CNN —The Supreme Court ruled Friday that public officials may block people on social media in certain circumstances, tossing aside challenges against local government officials in Michigan and California who blocked followers who were critical of them on Facebook. “When a government official posts about job-related topics on social media, it can be difficult to tell whether the speech is official or private,” Barrett wrote. A similar issue came to the Supreme Court when former President Donald Trump blocked several followers on the social media site then known as Twitter. A federal appeals court in New York sided against Trump, but by the time the appeal reached the Supreme Court he was out of office and the justices dismissed the dispute as moot. “Today’s ruling splits the difference between two fairly extreme poles,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

Source: CNN March 15, 2024 22:09 UTC