Kevin Lindke of Port Huron, Mich., is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to prohibit public officials from being able to censor or block constituents on their private social media accounts.Kevin Lindke has taken a wrecking ball to old buildings as part of a family business and in his free time uses his small-town influencer status on social media to challenge people in power.”I tried to be the nice guy with a lot of stuff I have going on. That didn’t work,” he said.
Local influencer and media personality Kevin Lindke of Port Huron, Mich., tapes online videos at a small studio in the basement of an insurance office.on Tuesday in a pair of cases, including one brought by Lindke. The answer could bring major changes to the nation’s political debate, which increasingly plays out on online comment boards and profile pages.
Port Huron, Mich., is at the center of a major Supreme Court case over whether public officials can block and censor criticism on social media accounts.He said Freed’s page had all the trappings of an official account: identifying him as a “public figure,” showing his official photo and, in between posts about his family, including posts about his handling of COVID-19. headtopics.com
Freed, 38, who was appointed city manager in 2014 and is a dedicated dad of two, insists his Facebook page was personal. With so many followers, Freed said, he was required to make his page publicly accessible under Facebook’s policy. While some posts mentioned his job, he noted the page was not government-owned or maintained or considered a responsibility of the job of city manager.”When it’s communication from my office as city manager regarding work for our residence, we use formal press releases, media releases to the official media around the city,” Freed said.
“I didn’t block him out of what he posted, because I really can’t recall what he posted. I blocked him out of who he was — a convicted felon,” Freed said. The page is “not a public forum. You can write me a letter on my city email address. You can come to my office and talk to me. There are literally 100 different ways to get your criticism to me. But my personal Facebook page doesn’t have to be one of them. headtopics.com